What Kind of Writer Do I Want To Be?

Hello and welcome to my blog. Who am I? My name is Lisbet, I am an aspiring writer of science fiction and an unabashed coffee addict. I used to write a lot in my youth but gradually stopped. Now, a decade later I’ve decided to return to writing and my first love, science fiction. My hope for this blog is to chronicle my journey from novice writer to professional, but also explore what it means to be a writer and a reader of science fiction.

What is a professional writer? I’m not talking about publication credits. I’m talking about behavior. All writers need to have enough confidence in their talents to submit their work. But how do you balance that confidence without falling into the trap of overconfidence? And how does a professional writer handle criticism?

Anyone who is really interested in reading science fiction and fantasy is probably aware of the Hugo controversy. I have been following this whole train-wreck with a horrified fascination. For those living in a cave, here is the gist of what’s going on. A group of conservative writers calling themselves Sad Puppies (and another group calling themselves Rabid Puppies) feel that that the awards are not paying enough attention to their political ideology, they feel that there is too much liberal message fiction in science fiction today so they took advantage of a loophole in Hugo nominations voting to push through a slate of works they say best represent their viewpoint. (I’ll deal with slate voting in general and that slate in particular another time).

After reading blogs from both sides I have come to the following conclusion. This is not about politics. In my opinion this whole kerfuffle is about a group of mediocre to average writers with a modest following and an over inflated sense of their own talent who are upset over not winning SFF’s most prestigious award and figured since they’re politically conservative there must be a liberal conspiracy against them.

I view all this as a treasure trove of object lessons for the novice writer. The dangers of overconfidence. The difference between serviceable prose and award worthy prose. The difference between brain candy fiction and full meal fiction and the place each has on a bookshelf.

And most importantly for a novice writer—professional and unprofessional approaches to criticism. Honest criticism is vital to the writing life. Just like a plant needs water to grow, we need constructive criticism to grow as writers. That is not to say criticism is fun. Its not. In fact it can be painful. But how do we respond to it? Do we give up? Do we view it as an attack and strike back? Or do we give it serious thought, apply what needs to be applied, and move on?

What about nonconstructive criticism? This is where a writer shows if they are a true professional or not. Very recently there has been a case of a well known, Hugo nominated writer who felt the need to respond, sometimes nastily, to every single negative review of his work on Amazon. To me, this was a mind blowing example of unprofessionalism in the workplace. Instead of coming across as a dignified professional, he seemed to me like nothing more than an insecure little child in constant need of validation throwing a temper tantrum when he didn’t get it.

That is definitely not the kind of writer I want to be.

There will always be someone who doesn’t like what we write. Whether is because of our style of writing, our subject matter, the color of our skin, the politics we broadcast…somebody is going to have a problem it. How we respond defines who we are. For myself, if the day ever comes that someone says something unkind about my work, I hope I have the dignity to act like a professional and just move on.