Writers and Magicians

When you say "I'm a writer" people tend to nod their heads, and ask what you've written.

When you say "I'm an aspiring writer", most people tend to take a second, to figure out what aspiring means, before asking what sort of stories you write.

There's a difference in there, that there's a measure of respect that comes with the first one, that makes all the difference. In the second, they ask it out of politese, and pray you don't actually answer. A simple "oh this and that..." is what the vast majority want to hear.

When you're a full fledged author, it's different. There's a respect in their question, even if you wrote a children's book about "not poopin' in the tub!" it's an achievement they respect.

And they're right to.

Writing is easy, it just sort of happens when you think with your hands. If you've ever spoken in your life, you've written something in words. It's that simple. The various degrees of difficulty come in when you actually expect the rest of the world to give a shit.

Because they don't have to.

John-boy was told "it's an arrogant thing to be a writer, to assume that the world wants to read what you write" and it's very true. I was bored at work, so I wrote a story while wandering around an art museum. Years later, I'm working on publishing that very story. Imagine that.

I actually will require people to give me money, to be given the privelage to read 580 pages born out of my boredom. Good Gravy, that's some ballsy balls right there.

I was bored, threw this together when I couldn't sleep, you should pay me for it. Damn...

While it's not that bad, it's in a sense very much that bad. But it's also that good. The difference between a writer and a aspiring writer is that the former's bored, inscesent ramblings actually entertained someone.

Or enriched their lives, with is the point of writing when you get down to it. Writing shouldn't be about making you smile for twenty minutes, it should be about giving you a moral, or a hopeful story that one can hold in their heart for years to come. It should shape you as a child, and temper you as an adult. Writing shouldn't be about a worthless halftime show crammed some where between eating and sleeping.

It should be a magic show; where something is pulled from nothing, and amazes the world. The audience should feel a part of the show itself, because they very much are. Every person knows magicians are just performing elaborate tricks, but while you're sitting there, watching them do impossible things, you believe.

That's what writing is about, it's about believing in the impossible, the mundane, or simply the weird for a time. Because everyone knows that the realm of magic isn't really there... but in this book it is, and if it can be there in this book, maybe it can be outside of it as well.

It's reasonable doubt for imagination, not because the writer said so, but because the audience said so.

That's what the audience do for the magic trick, without them reading the story, living the story, there's no trick if there's no one to show it to.

They make the difference by reading, the difference between an aspiring writer, and an author.