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Emil Ottoman's avatar

I can't believe that anyone was actually claim that if you're trying to improve your art, you're a tryhard. Or that you don't have IT. That's preposterous.

I take specific offense because I am most definitely a tryhard. I want everyone else who writes to be a tryhard as well. All of the best authors that I know personally are tryhards.

According to things like standardized testing, which since I recently packed up most of what is left of my childhood which fits in a small document box, I was able to go through many years of these test results at once. I was precocious in the sense of written and verbal communication. in first grade according to a Stanford test result sheet I found during this process I basically broke the metric. A total and complete outlier.

What people mistake for natural talent at a young age is almost always a precociousness or predisposition towards a certain thing. Everyone else has to start from relative zero. Famously one of my favorite authors cannot spell for the life of him. And he fully admits it. He's written over 20 books and he still turns in final drafts That will give a copy editor a seizure.

Not only that, he's a literary author, populist author, approves stylist, and he comes from a very distinctive background tautologically.

Thaddeus, I think that me and you could come up with a pretty good dissection of voice versus style. And the differentiation between the two. Because I already have my own pet theories about it but I would like someone to share them with. And around here you're one of the people that I trust to talk about these sorts of subjects with.

I digress. I digress constantly but still.

It also comes to mind for me personally us that anyone not meeting a story or a piece of work on its level but expecting something from it which isn't there. Never was there and never will be is a disingenuous act. I I feel like people who write externalized arch plot narrative stories, you know the big names, the ones that you can get at the airport. The fiction that I call airport fiction. People don't understand the fact that these are some of the hardest stories to write because they have specific forms. They almost always have specific expectations from the reader. And I've seen too many authors who haven't put in the time, who insist on the absolution of their artistic vision as being what is going to move the needle or reinvent the wheel when trying to write one of these stories. They're actually incredibly hard to write. This is why even though they may not have the best prose, or they may not be my preferred anything to read, I do respect these authors, because it's very hard to do what they do.

As far as marketing goes, if you're not willing to market yourself you can be the next van Gogh. In fact, with my one published short story, my business as an editor and my imposter syndrome telling me I have nothing to say, especially nothing to say worth buying and putting a book, I'm well on the way to eating yellow paint in an effort to allay my depression.

I know some amazing authors who want people to just find them. It's not going to happen. On the other hand, I'm a carnival barker and I will if I feel the need insist myself upon you. If you're someone whose work I admire, I will do the same for you as well. But there's certainly no shame in working actively at what you do and what you love.

And a lot of artistic endeavors and industries but I've heard it used most around the music industry. There is a short saying that sums it up.

"They're a 10-year overnight success story."

This is most artistic endeavor for most of us in a nutshell. Anyone who says otherwise is a Philistine.

And this is coming from someone who will work with self-laid constraints for a certain type of story. Someone who enjoys writing traditional narrative fiction. Someone who is a formal and informal experimentalist. But the one thing I'm always trying to do is I'm trying to outdo myself. Because I want my next story to hit as hard or harder than the one that came before it. If it doesn't, there's no point to putting it out.

Anyway, it's always a to pleasure to be an early commenter on your posts Thaddeus. I do hope you have a good day. It is looking like it's going to rain tonight.

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LC Frias's avatar

Substack is like working in Corporate: even if you don't like it, you must invest in "personal marketing." Being good at your work (or writing) will only take you to a certain point, and you'll need to "convince" someone else to level up, as Mario needs Luigi to rescue Princess Peach. It feels cringe, bad, pedantic... you name it, but it is necessary. No one will knock on your door because they "knew" you would be there. It's the other way around; you have to make them fall in love with you, and want your work, books, and whatever you have to offer. It's the necessary evil, and I would love not to have to hold hands with that cringy feeling, but somehow, I chose it :)

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