Being An Author Is Cringe (So Embrace It Already)

There is this weird obsession a lot of writers have with being taken seriously. A need to believe that they are doing something meaningful with their story, and that their work is more than just a silly, self-indulgent exercise. It's why so many of us stay away from dragons and spaceships, and even if we do indulge in them we try to make sure that our stories have something real to say.

Why? Because we don't want to be seen as immature. We don't want our work to be thought of as childish. We don't want to make something that society tells us we should be embarrassed of. Or, to put things into a more modern vernacular, we don't want to be cringe.

And this can often prevent you from doing your best work.

And if you won't listen to me, listen to a classic voice in the genre.

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Take It From C.S. Lewis

There's a particular quote that I think is very important for anyone who intends to be a writer, and it's from one of the big names in the field. For those not familiar with it, C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying:

"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

Honestly, this sums it up pretty well. Because so many of us are overly concerned with being seen as grown-ups making grown-up work, but to paraphrase what someone else once said, adult books are all about sad people cheating on each other and making bad life decisions. Young adult books are full of magic, monsters, adventures, wonder, bittersweet endings, and aliens.

Trust me, I know a thing or two about telling silly stories.

There is something that often gets lost with our desire to appear adult and mature to other people... it isn't fun. It isn't fulfilling. And the whole point of being a grown up in the first place is so that you can do whatever the hell you want. Most of us left peer pressure behind in high school... so why are you letting the worry that you, your story, or both might be cringe determine what you choose to put out into the world?

Especially if it's something you genuinely believe in, and it's a story you want to tell. And, not to be that guy, but I always have groups of eager adults who want to hand over money to me when I bring my cat mysteries to a convention, but who aren't terribly interested in more serious, adult fare.

There's no guarantee that your story will be widely read, or widely loved. But if you're willing to let the idea of being seen as silly, immature, or ridiculous stop you from writing something you care about, you should really sit with that for a while. Because all writers (and especially the memorable ones) are pretty damn cringe, and that didn't stop them for even a moment.

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That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

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