There are a thousand reasons why an individual wants to be a writer. But most probably, either consciously or unconsciously – which is rare – he wants to be a literary writer. There is no other way around to explain why a person would want to stay in his room and plod on writing if he had not been inspired or disillusioned by the books that he had read and concluded in himself that he could also write like that. Save for some, this may not be true. But generally, most of the writers one way or another started their effort to learn how to write with this goal in mind.
When I was younger, I imagined already a pyramid representing the number of writers in a generation who would start up below eager to win their college literary writing contest, bag the national literary awards and finally the Nobel Prize for Literature. But as the year would pass by, this number of wannabe writers will decrease. Some would lose interest all in all in writing. Some will find that they don’t have it. Others will find job and face the reality of life that they have to work and drop the stupid idea that they held as sacred before (which happens most of the time). As that generation gets older, only a number would remain and probably a group or an individual will emerge as the most talented among his contemporaries. So the pyramid figure.
My antidote to that is to stay slugging it out until your last breath. You may not get on top, but probably you must have reached the middle part of the pyramid, at least.
Now, talking about this bunch of writers is an interesting topic to discuss. These writers who are inspired/ disillusioned themselves growing old to write that great literary book can be seen as already strutting like a bigshot even while they are still writing for the school papers. Like a bunch of wannabe rockstars, their ego is already bloated to the hilt. They know the importance and power of the written word and this they use to create image that they are better than anybody else. Let them win an award here or there and they are already yakking like hell about the seemed-shortcomings of the people they think they are at par talent-wise.
But, as I recall what an already established local writer said: this inflated ego is somehow harmless. I dare say we can call it merely as boosting one’s confidence.
While it’s true, I am just appalled sometimes when I stumble on blogs by known struggling contemporary writers. It’s good that they are still writing and still slugging it out and honing their writing skills through their blogs. But when I read their entries – knowing beforehand that they have won several literary competitions – and they try to put somebody down so that they can portray an image that they are already somebody and they kick ass, I’m just disappointed.
What do they want? Be Jessica Zafra? Zafra has been known for kicking ass and she’s the best in that league. What’s the point of emulating her? Can’t you offer something else? You think putting somebody down through crafty writing would do you or your reader good?
Nah! Forget it!
