Comments on: Concerning #amwriting

By: luke bergeron

luke bergeron — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:27:46 +0000

I know what you mean. I felt like a jerk for writing this article, because I do think that there is a possibility that the accompanying website is useful for the community. In truth, I debated not even posting this because it tended toward a hate-filled rant rather than anything actually useful (not to mention an article about a twitter trend is kinda silly), but the whole idea offended my notion of what writing should be. At the end of the day, broadcasting an activity isn’t any more useful than the “I’m eating Cheetos” kind of spam everyone thinks twitter is about, even though it’s anything but. But beyond that, your point about breeding contempt from observers is spot on. Writing is under enough fire right now with all the self-publishing backlash, it doesn’t need the additional mess associated with the #amwriting type of self-aggrandizing.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:26:32 +0000

Luke, I agree with your opinion here. I’m not very familiar with #amwriting, but it sounds like the kind of self-hooraying that breeds contempt from disinterested observers and embarrassment from people who might otherwise identify with this kind of group, and for the reasons you point out: the lifting of the process over the product. I feel like kind of a dick for typing that, since community and incremental joys are all a lot of writers are going to find in the pursuit of putting together a story or book, but there’s something private (as Heinlein illustrates in the cited quotation) about the whole mess until it’s finished.

By: Angela Sels

Angela Sels — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:50:43 +0000

Got to love the Heinlein. I checked out the #amwriting hashtag. Only one made me chuckle in the most recent tweets: —S0BeUrself: My best friend over my shoulder “Do u think there’s a circle of hell dedicated to ppl who continuously edit their book?” #writing #amwriting— Most of it was comments about how many pages they’d done today or how much they’ve procrastinated. Nothing exciting, but whatever. Hooray for camaraderie.
Anyway, I’m finding it hard to stir up strong emotions either way. When I was an art major I mostly disliked the other art majors (those smug hipster kids) but you writers seem to be a friendly bunch…