If you go on the social media sites, there’s usually a hashtag @Writing Community, or variations thereof. Frankly, I’m not sure there are such things as hashtags anymore because I don’t keep up with the environment. Social media is a sideshow, one I enjoy but can take or leave because I’m a boomer and we spent most of our formative years outside riding bikes past dark and drinking from hoses, and perhaps that explains the later brain damage but it means we’re a little more turned out of the whole screen lifestyle. But I do see the hashtag on X, which is my goto media. Frankly, it’s my only media, except for Youtube. I hang out there, too.
And there’s lots of writers on X. Lots. And lots. Judging by the numbers of them that appear every five minutes or so on my feed, there must be about 3-400 new books published everyday, or in first draft, or in editing, or being queried or beta read or whatever is the accepted process for publishing a book these days. And all of these people talk to each other and pass advice and complain and demand. Oh boy, do they demand. That you take them seriously. That you read their books. That you say nice things about them.
Because, apparently, there is a Constitutional right to publish a novel.
And, yeah, there is, so publish away. But there is no constitutional right that your book is worth my time. Which is where the whole ‘writing community’ thing comes in, as a bludgeon for me to accept the book and only say good things about it. If I don’t like their book, then I’m being a bad community member.
I am a bad community member.
I am rather harsh on books I don’t like. Well, let me correct that, on books that I think are poorly written and not worth a reader’s time. There’s books I don’t like that are well done, like … well I can’t think of one right now but there are some and my dislike is usually limited to craft and art, not an annoying story, like, say, anything by Jonathan Franzen. But it is my firm belief that if you, as a writer, release your book into the wild, then it is fair game, and if you are unable to handle the slings and arrows of criticism than you shouldn’t be publishing anything. Because no matter how good you think your book is, there are going to be lots of people who hate it. Trust me on this …
This is what the “writing community” seeks to thwart. If you’re a writer, then the premise is that you support all other writers in their endeavors and are encouraging and supportive and commiserate over those mean old critics like somebody in close proximity of this site who simply cannot understand the genius that is you. And this is why the quality of books have really nose-dived in the last ten years or so. Or one of the reasons why.
And they really have. It’s harder and harder to find a recently published novel that I can get past the first fifty pages or even interests me at all. This is especially true for the ‘indie’ titles, many of which are nothing more than fanfic first drafts in desperate need of an editor, but you can’t say that. You have to support the “writing community.”
The last true writing community was the monastery, where everyone dressed the same and copied the same book onto various vellums and parchments and sometimes they embellished their work or added ittle asides but, it was the same book. Written by the same people. Which is pretty much a description of most current best seller lists and awards.
Because if you are part of a community, then you have to do what the community says. You have to follow their rules And I am here to tell you that there are no rules in writing. Not one. Well there is one rule in writing: that there are no rules in writing. Writing is a solitary, lonely, unsuppported business where someone with a massive enough ego to believe that what they put down on paper is so worthy of others attention that you must take time out of your day and some of your money and buy their book to enjoy the experience that is them. Is such behavior conducive to a community? No.
And anything produced by a community can be assured to be watered down, bland, templated and checklisted and under the scrutiny of all the self-appointed community members who will decide what is acceptable. Think of it as an HOA. Or a family. The Manson family.
If you want the best example of how a writer should be then it’s Thomas Wolfe. He was a crazy man, absolutely self-absorbed and convinced of his own genius who wrote hundreds of thousands of words while using the top of a refrigerator as a desk- he was a pretty tall guy- and if it was not for Maxwell Perkins inserting a little bit of sanity into that stream-of-consciousness mess, we wouldn’t have those novels. Max Perkins. One guy. Not a community.
‘Cause you can be assured the writing community would have told Wolfe his work was too long, too hard to read, and uses far too many em dashes.