Aspiring novelist Alix Christies wrote something recently that sounded a lot like the description for this blog:
"We live in a time of extraordinay openness, when anyone with an internet connection can publish. Everytime I go online or step into a bookstore, I am overcome by this tsunami of freshly published words. This torrent of expression inevitably provokes existentialism in a writer. What makes any of us think we have something to say that others need to read?"
Her article, published in Intelligent Life, is titled "We Ten Million," referring to the number people in the world (by her estimate) who right now are working on novels they will submit for publication this year. Only 250,000 or so will succeed.
This week I listened to an interesting interview on a related theme, by the way. Laura Miller of Salon.com was criticizing National Novel Writing Month (ever heard of it?) on a show called Q (an excellent program, BTW) on CBC radio. NaNoWriMo, as it's known, encourages people to complete a novel, of whatever quality, in 30 days. Some 165,000 participated last year. Miller thinks this is a waste, given the fact that studies show that as many as a half of Americans last year read less than one book for pleasure. Eighty-two percent, meanwhile, said they wanted to write a book some day.
On the show's website, articulate listeners (writers, no doubt) responded to the interview in opposite ways. Some agreed with Ms. Miller while others said, "anything getting young people to write instead of play video games, etc., is good." Check out the discussion thread or listen to the interview here. To read Laura Miller's original article on this topic, go here.
No comments:
Post a Comment