I suspect that a lot of people look at writing and think that, OK, it consists of: - Typing sentences. They do that with email all the time. - Using their native language. They do that all the time. - Telling a story. Well, they tell jokes, and the hilarious thing that happened on vacation, so they think they can do that, too. The only thing that they don't think that they've mastered is spelling and grammar, and they think that's the editor's problem. Edited to add: I think that these are the reasons for another problem: People who try to write, discover that it isn't easy and their first efforts aren't great, and give up because they think that that means that they have no talent.
@A.M.P. Oh yes...the hours I used to waste on those videos.... My personal favorite is "A Day in the Life of an Analyst," complete with every line of business jargon one could possibly think of. Anyway, yes, it's easy to look at a piece of writing, especially good writing, and think you can do the same. That's because, like magicians, the best writers never tell their secrets...they never show the work. They hide the cables behind the speaker (to use a phrase I repeat too often). But writers without experience or knowledge of the craft don't inherently know why a particular passage is well-written, they just know that it is. The understanding of that why and then doing it successfully is where all the work is. Writing down a list of events is easy. Making the reader feel an emotion without telling her or him what to feel is the hard part. But understanding that the crux of writing is the second one and not the first one is the biggest bitch of all.
To be honest half the time I like to pretend to myself it's easier than it is. It's more fun if I maintain the delusion that I'm writing an early draft of a future bestseller. Threads like these give me a brief dose of harsh reality, but not to worry, I'll get myself back into a state of happy ignorance soon.
Of course they do. And many of them join writing forums because they are so sure they can brush up their skills in a few weeks and become bestselling authors. After all, how hard can it really be?
My brother played the guitar. He was in a band. He could not sing and play at the same time. TOTALLY not possible, for him. One of his band mates also couldn't but he could play and mouth the words. My brother wanted to someday achieve that guy's level of magic. I love the Hemingway quote. "Writing is easy. You just have to sit at the typewriter and bleed." Writing is work and work and work. It is emotional and confusing and a strange kind of magic.
I totally agree with you that writing is emotional, and not just from the point of your characters. It really is a journey into the unknown filled with potholes, magical scenery, every kind of weather and high points so high, you never know if you're going to come back down.
I do have to note that there are a lot of writers who think it's easy - at least that's the implication when they keep stating things like "Just keep putting books out", or "Just write knock-offs of what's popular", or "Just write [whatever genre they know nothing about] 'cause that's easy!".
