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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Addicted to Literary Crack

Before there was nothing. You lived in isolation writing your stories or your novels and all you had was a rejection letter coming back from a nameless editor from a nameless publishing company who might comment on your latest chapters and synopsis. And that was it. You literally wrote for years with the only feedback coming from friends, enemies, the compressed air of writing groups. Real feedback, real anointment came only from the Big Apple in the form of the acceptance letter that just never seemed to come. So you toiled on in the loneliest profession in the world. Then came the Internet.

Suddenly everyone became a writer but you had been doing it for years in your secret agony. Ensconced in your Garrot you had been honing your skills, wiring your synapses, developing your craft. The Newbies spewed while you thundered. People marveled you were able to spin off an essay crackling with wit and insight and you kept it yourself that it took you all of five minutes. Because your isolation had been broken. You suddenly were being recognized and people actually commented on your work. They complimented you, they criticized you, but it didn't matter. Your isolation had been obliterated and suddenly you were talking to the world.

So writers became bloggers. And for novelists who need to cool down between books or want to try out different forms it became an easy place to get that instant feedback writers crave. Suddenly that novel you have been burning to write gets put to the side for that quick essay on Obamas squeamishness and you are writing for that literary crack. It comes buzzing into your phone with one comment after another. Brilliant. Love your writing. Excellent piece. Just great. Your day becomes a little brighter as the comments pile up and you create a small firestorm. Thirty four hundred hits in one day for one article.

So you tell yourself its time to get back to that novel, but you have spent your best capitol on a one page blog and you are already considering topics for your next one. You hate to admit it, but you have become  addicted to literary crack.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man will be out in January

Books by William Hazelgrove