Walter Makes Me Hate Writer’s Forums

I am a member of several online writing communities.  They are places where I go to gripe about the things writers gripe about, look for funny writing jokes, and ask the occasional question.  I’ve gotten good advice on a cover design, a name for a company that may feature in a future book, and a fair number of funny writer memes.

But periodically I come across someone who decides to play the fly in the soup.  And that really ticks me off.

Every online community has them.  At least, every online community in my experience.  The person who wants to show off how smart they are, how clever they are, how much better than the rest of us they are.  As a general rule I ignore them.  But the writing trolls really bug me.

Writing is hard enough.  The overwhelming majority of writers agree that they struggle with the process.  Big stuggles or small, writing is work.  Good writing is a long process of creation, self-doubt, slashing away at the overwritten/poorly written/should have never been written, then re-writing, re-editting, re-doubting, all in a cycle that we fear may never end.  Once the writer arrives at a point where the work might be acceptable, they are faced with the complexities of getting it into print.  Traditional or self-published?  Formatting challenges, marketing nightmares.  It’s…overwhelming.  At least at times.

That’s where a writing community, online or IRL, can be a huge boost.  A place to complain, whine or weep.  A group of people who understand the pain and can offer support.  Maybe it’s a solution you’ve never thought of, or just encouragement to keep going.

Then along comes Walter Writersbane.

My bet is you’ve met Walter.  He (or she, but usually he in my experience) is the one who will emphasize the impossibility of it all.  The one who has all the statistics on how many books are published each year and how few are successful.  Walter loves to make the point that the deck is stacked against the writer.  That the system is rigged, that marketing requires big budgets, that it’s all really rather futile.  My theory is that Walter is hoping that if he can just “thin the herd” of other writers, people will buy more of his books.

Or maybe he’s just a jerk.

Just recently, I came across a typical post.  The writer was struggling.  Writer’s block, or self doubt or lack of support from family and friends, one of the common issues a lot of us face.  They wanted a reason to keep going.  The majority of comments were supportive.  Then Walter reared his negative head.  The comment was a correction of a typo in the original post.  Just the corrected word, nothing else.  I just sat and stared at it.  What kind of mean-spirited, shriveled soul would think this was an appropriate response to the post?  Yes, I believe that posts on writer’s pages should display quality writing.  Good grammar, consistent punctuation, carefully structured sentences.  But it’s social media, and the occasional typo happens.    Given the nature of the original post, the response was unfeeling, unhelpful and unneccesary.

Walter is great with absolutes.  You can only create like this, you can never create like that.  All “successful” writers do this, or should do this.  You’re a failure if you make money in any other way than the way Walter thinks you should (I saw just this sort of comment a few days ago.  My take?  You’ve found a way to bring in some money so you can continue to create?  Good for you!  Care to share how you did it?).  Violate any of Walter’s dictums from on high and you will receive the weight of his social media wrath.  Sadly, Walter has a clan of equally loud and critical siblings who will ride in on his coattails.  It makes it seem like they are a majority of the creative world.  Don’t believe it.

There are times in the writing process when criticism is needed.  Even vital.  Times when writers need to be taken down a peg.  It should always be done with care and caution.  The goal should be to make the writer better.

Let me repeat that last sentence so the people in the back don’t miss it:

The goal should be to make the writer better.

There are also times when we just need a hug.

We never need Walter Writersbane.

Walter is a jerk.

Don’t be Walter.

Peace

JD

(Photo – “the room won’t stop spinning”  by silas216 licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)