Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers
Should writers only do what they do best?
By that I mean if you're a great poet but only an average short story writer, should you drop the short story writing and concentrate on the poetry?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on
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I think you should do whatever you're in the mood for doing. Creativity doesn't need to be placed into boxes designated "worthwhile" or "worthless". It's all worth something. Whenever your passion lies then is what you should work on, whether for ten years or ten minutes. Variety is the spice of life. :)
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Permalink Reply by Callie Leah on
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Absolutely not. Let's pretend I was terrible at poetry, but I was a great short story writer. (sorry about stealing your example, but I couldn't think of anything else) If I just gave up poetry but I liked writing poetry better than short stories, I would be misrerable. If you don't like something then don't do it, even if you're good at it. Just do what you like best and no matter how bad at it you are, you'll always be happy.
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Absolutely, Callie! If you can't get pleasure from your own writing, how can you expect anyone else to? Well said. :)
Callie Leah Dewees said:Absolutely not. Let's pretend I was terrible at poetry, but I was a great short story writer. (sorry about stealing your example, but I couldn't think of anything else) If I just gave up poetry but I liked writing poetry better than short stories, I would be misrerable. If you don't like something then don't do it, even if you're good at it. Just do what you like best and no matter how bad at it you are, you'll always be happy.
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Permalink Reply by scribbler on
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For a youngster you make very sharp observations sometimes. :) That's true. It's good to stick with what you're passionate about. I don't think we need to drop one at all actually. There's nothing stopping us from doing both, is there?
Callie Leah said:Absolutely not. Let's pretend I was terrible at poetry, but I was a great short story writer. (sorry about stealing your example, but I couldn't think of anything else) If I just gave up poetry but I liked writing poetry better than short stories, I would be misrerable. If you don't like something then don't do it, even if you're good at it. Just do what you like best and no matter how bad at it you are, you'll always be happy.
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Absolutely not. And by the way, did you happen to catch the discussion, "Age is but a number"? It's totally about how people ignore kids even though they might be the best writers ever! It's nice to know people agree with me. Thanks!
scribbler said:For a youngster you make very sharp observations sometimes. :) That's true. It's good to stick with what you're passionate about. I don't think we need to drop one at all actually. There's nothing stopping us from doing both, is there?
Callie Leah said:Absolutely not. Let's pretend I was terrible at poetry, but I was a great short story writer. (sorry about stealing your example, but I couldn't think of anything else) If I just gave up poetry but I liked writing poetry better than short stories, I would be misrerable. If you don't like something then don't do it, even if you're good at it. Just do what you like best and no matter how bad at it you are, you'll always be happy.
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I think the people that ignore a kid's writing are prone to ignore kids generally Callie. Believe it or not there are adults that are envious of kids they see that are bright and driven. It's complicated. The easiest way to explain it is that they see in those children what they don't see in themselves and wish they did.
Callie Leah said:Absolutely not. And by the way, did you happen to catch the discussion, "Age is but a number"? It's totally about how people ignore kids even though they might be the best writers ever! It's nice to know people agree with me. Thanks!
scribbler said:For a youngster you make very sharp observations sometimes. :) That's true. It's good to stick with what you're passionate about. I don't think we need to drop one at all actually. There's nothing stopping us from doing both, is there?
Callie Leah said:Absolutely not. Let's pretend I was terrible at poetry, but I was a great short story writer. (sorry about stealing your example, but I couldn't think of anything else) If I just gave up poetry but I liked writing poetry better than short stories, I would be misrerable. If you don't like something then don't do it, even if you're good at it. Just do what you like best and no matter how bad at it you are, you'll always be happy.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Kunz on
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I would have to agree with, basically everyone who's replied to this. If you enjoy doing it, regardless of how good you are at doing it, you should do it. And that doesn't even have to be taken for writing. Anything in life that you enjoy doing, you should do, regardless what other people may think and/or say about you. At least that's what I try to do.
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I think that's a smart attitude, Andrew. It's easy to put aside what you really want to do because others say you shouldn't. It's much harder to ignore them and keep on doing what you feel is right for you.
Just keep it legal! LOL. ;)
Andrew Kunz said:I would have to agree with, basically everyone who's replied to this. If you enjoy doing it, regardless of how good you are at doing it, you should do it. And that doesn't even have to be taken for writing. Anything in life that you enjoy doing, you should do, regardless what other people may think and/or say about you. At least that's what I try to do.
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I totally agree. I mean, what does it matter what others think anyway? I'm a christian, so this may sound wrong to those who aren't, but we'll all eventually be in heaven anyway. (Or hell for some.) It's not like people decide what will happen to you when you die. God does. If someone said you stunk at soccer, but you loved doing it, then whatever they think won't affect your being in the afterlife. And they're the ones who will end up feeling crummy later anyway because of the mean thing that they said.
Andrew Kunz said:I would have to agree with, basically everyone who's replied to this. If you enjoy doing it, regardless of how good you are at doing it, you should do it. And that doesn't even have to be taken for writing. Anything in life that you enjoy doing, you should do, regardless what other people may think and/or say about you. At least that's what I try to do.
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