I have recently been more active concerning social media. I have been a mostly passive consumer since the dawn of the internet, as I mostly used it for absorbing information rather putting anything in. Anyway, I digress. The problem I have is that I went to the social networks to find writers, to try and connect and see what people were doing. Naively perhaps, I thought that it might be inspiring and maybe I could even inspire someone else. One person would be enough. I must say that there are plenty of good things going on out there. Perhaps a little too much self-promotion, but that is the game. The one thing that is pissing me off is the attitude that:
Writers Write!
I don’t disagree with the truth in the statement. I object to its use as an accusation against people that, for whatever reason, aren’t writing. I have been writing for as long as I can remember, whether poetry for myself, putting together school year books, writing songs, science papers and even policy. Clearly some of that is fiction, some non-fiction, some of it … hard to tell. I am lucky. Even when I am not writing a story I am passionate about, I am usually writing about something. Trying to communicate ideas to other people through words, through stories.
Sometimes, life is not so kind, and we can’t write. Try to remember that not everyone is as lucky as you and can’t always get their lives together so that they can write. If you are a writer and your life allows you to write, then celebrate that, but please don’t make it a barrier for those less fortunate than you. Remember that for some of us, this is a long road. We will not be a breakout literary star by the time we are 25. Every chance we get, we are writing, we are getting better, and eventually, we will tell you a story. It’s just not going to happen on a one year time scale. Some of us are in this for life.
Harry T. Tuttle 