Writers’ Conference
I’m not sure I should make any comments about this year’s Writing Today conference. After all, I only attended yesterday (it concludes today), and I certainly didn’t get to every session. And I’m a blogger.
Which, according to Richard Schickel, the lunchtime keynote speaker, makes me an idiot, writing only for my mother and perhaps a distant cousin. Hey, Dick, I might have one cousin who reads my blog, but my mother? Never.
Clearly, Mr. Schickel is an accomplished and successful writer, but I didn’t quite follow his criticism of blogs. He was in the middle of a talk about the writing life — write every day, follow your instincts when choosing your subject matter, savor those times you can write without compromise, and get paid for your work. All good points, and perhaps he was thinking of that last one when he said that blogging is for idiots. After all, very few of us get paid for our work. On the other hand, there are many fine writers who put pen to paper and never get paid for their work either. Not everyone is aggressive and/or lucky enough to land a book contract, a newspaper column, or a magazine gig.
I write because I love it. I love choosing just the right words, molding the phrases to reflect the feeling behind them, structuring an argument to make a point but still leave room for honest disagreement and discussion. I write to be read, and I think that’s where Mr. Schickel’s argument really falls apart. No, I don’t get a paycheck for blogging, but what I do get is feedback from people who like my work enough to come here over and over and read what I have to say. I couldn’t get that if I were typing away in an offline world where I had to ship my work to some anonymous agent who, assuming he/she liked it enough, might pass it on to a faceless editor at a publishing house — all with the vague hope that the ultimate decision-maker hadn’t already filled the monthly quota for my particular genre.
Blogging removes all the middlemen and women and connects the writer directly to the reader. Maybe that’s why someone with such close ties to the traditional world of publishing has a problem with it. Or he could have been talking about quality. Yes, there are bloggers out there who don’t even know how to spell, much less construct a coherent sentence. There are bloggers whose sole purpose is to gaze into their own navels day after day and foist their mental meanderings on the rest of the world via the internet. And there are print writers who do the same thing. There’s a remedy for it, and it’s quite simple — if you don’t like it, don’t read it. But simply dismissing blogs altogether means you miss being exposed to some truly fine writers who are a credit to the craft.
Mr. Schickel’s disparaging remarks about blogging didn’t win him many friends among the participants I spoke with afterward, and they were particularly inappropriate given that the conference included a session on blogging — and the instructor was sitting in the audience when he spoke. She challenged him afterward, and he admitted that he doesn’t read blogs. This from a man who had just told us how carefully he studies a film before he writes his review. I guess that little tidbit tells us all we need to know about the value of his criticism.
Onward — I really enjoyed Rebecca Gilman and Watt Key, two Birmingham-Southern College graduates who came home to share their experiences (as playwright and novelist respectively). I was disappointed with the session on the mystery — or “crime fiction” — genre, as I felt that author Steven Rudd spent most of his time tacitly apologizing for writing books with plots.
The session on blogging was not quite what I expected; it focused more on the mechanics of setting up a site and not so much on the story of how My Tiny Kingdom went from a blog to a soon-to-be-released book — unlike the other sessions I attended, this one really would have benefitted from being longer. Or perhaps it would have been better to have two workshops, one elementary and one more advanced. But that might give too much legitimacy to the whole blogging phenomenon, and we can’t have that. 
I had great fun with my fellow bloggers Jennifer from Daily Diatribes and Doug from Hey Jenny Slater and with our new friend who works at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and will soon launch the ASF’s very own blog (theatre lovers take note — I’ll post a link when it happens). Dismiss us if you like, Mr. Schickel, but we are the future. In fact, we are the present.
ADDENDUM 1: Here are Jennifer’s account of the day and her letter to the editor of Time magazine.
ADDENDUM 2: Blue Gal is not amused.
ADDENDUM 3: Doug weighs in.
March 10th, 2007 at 10:39 am
One word for you…..dickshickel!!!!!
March 10th, 2007 at 11:49 am
All I have to say is Dickshickel!!!
March 10th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I am cracking up thinking about this fellow pompously calling bloggers “idiots,” while the presenter for the blogging panel sits in the audience. Buddy, if you’re going to take these small-potatoes speaking engagements, ya need to watch your step.
As long as the time you spend blogging doesn’t prevent you from devoting time to your other projects (a-hem!) I don’t see how it’s any different–in fact, it’s very similar–to writing long letters to friends, which I think most pre-internet writers engaged in almost daily. You’re always reading published collections of them.
March 10th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
One may readily look to Glenn Greenwald, whose blogging has led to a couple of books already, and a post at Salon.com. Blogging is worthwhile if only as an opportunity to hone one’s writing skills in an environment where there is immediate feedback as to your success from a real audience. Blogging has created a revival of the diarist, reawakening a useful activity that was once popular but had nearly faded from view in the electronic age.
March 10th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
I wrote a totally awesome letter to the editor of Time magazine and I CAN’T SEND IT!!!! Dick Schickel has cursed me!!!
March 10th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
[...] It seems today is a big day for those close to me questioning thier affectiveness at thier craft. Aunt Kathy has an excellent post up about the writing conference she attended where a speaker called bloggers “idiots”. I feel your pain today Kathy. [...]
March 10th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Jennifer, your comments got caught in my spam blocker. It appears “dickschickel” has become a new swear word. You should be so proud!
March 10th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
I don’t think I write for the same reasons as Mr. Schickel. There’s a big difference between blogs and traditional media other than the obvious ones. With a newspaper or magazine, you write for the pre-made audience. Even with a book, it’s a narrow audience. With a blog, the economics makes it so that you can just write your heart out. Your audience will find you if there is an audience. If there is no audience, then big deal. You’re out a little time spent with some much-needed venting.
I have also never claimed to offer the same type of benefit that a newspaper or magazine provides. I read newspapers and blogs, and get different things from each.
And I think he’s focusing on money b/c there’s almost no way to make a living via a blog. With rare exception, there’s no way to do more than MAYBE cover your expenses. But like you said, it’s not about that. Maybe this guy should start a blog anonymously and re-learn what it’s like to write without monetary reward.
March 11th, 2007 at 9:45 am
I was the presenter, and you are exactly right– I needed a LOT more time to adequately cover my topic! It was hard to talk to an audience that included people who had never seen a blog and accomplished bloggers such as yourself. You certainly didn’t need to hear about hostin, domain names, etc.
All this to say- if you have questions about the part about how blogging has put me in a better position to pursue a book contract, shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to discuss it with you.
I was frustrated that the computer foulup and fact I presented only once limited my time and ability to convey this important message, which was the focus for many writers. My experience has been similar to Watt Key’s, though I have just begun sending out queries. Fingers crossed!!
March 11th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Wouldn’t you like to go out with dickshickel for dinner while he grouses about the food he’s never tried? Or the art he’s never seen? Or even the handcuffs he’s never tried?
I love reading blogs because we actually get a chance to see different points of view than the other media. Kathy, you expand my world through your blog because I am a western gal who has not spent much time in the south. But now I have a community in the south where I feel perfectly comfortable carrying on with. I can;t find that in many places and certainly not from a newspaper.
March 11th, 2007 at 11:29 am
I’ve never invented a new word before…I am so proud!! All together now: DICKSHICKEL!!!
March 11th, 2007 at 11:29 am
For Richard Schickel: You’re a real Dick!
For Kathy, Jennifer, and other bloggers I read: I read you because you do what you do better than most Dicks do what they do. They usually can’t keep IT up, but I hope y’all do.
March 11th, 2007 at 11:33 am
are we sure Mr. S. is a writer? I’m a writer, my daughters are writers* and the only thing that makes one a writer is that you write. Publication and payment are not part of what makes you a writer. If you want to make a living at writing then obviously you need to get paid for some of it, which I supposed makes you an author. But a writer is someone who HAS to write - like my oldest daughter, who told me “I can’t not write.” Thanks to the power of the internet, we can share our writing and our thoughts with an audience beyond a classroom or monthly writer’s group.
*I have to brag: my 15-year-old had a poem published in “Teen Ink,” a national literary magazine. And my college sophomore had a piece accepted to the Seneca Review, which is very prestigious and has published, among others, Rita Dove and Maya Angelou.
March 11th, 2007 at 11:36 am
“As long as the time you spend blogging doesn’t prevent you from devoting time to your other projects (a-hem!)…”
Yes, mom. * hangs head in dismay * And I promise to get that manuscript to you — soon.
I hadn’t thought consciously of blogging as an up-to-date form of the written correspondence that was once so prevalent, but it certainly does serve that purpose — and the responses come without that long wait for the post.
Anne, I would love to hear more about your experience, and I will email you this week. I do wish you’d been given more time, and I’m not sure if it was the organizers’ collective ignorance of blogging or the faint whiff of snobbery that prevented you from having more than one session.
Dan, you know we could never do this for pay — who wants to give up editorial control?
And MWT, you know you are a southern girl at heart, and we love to have you here.
March 11th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Thanks, Don!
March 11th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Lisa, brag at will. I know you are proud of your daughters, and now I am too. I agree with your definition of a writer. We write because we couldn’t imagine not writing.
March 11th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
He sounds like a judgemental snob. And like most judgemental snobs, he sounds as if he doesn’t have the first clue about what’s he’s judging.
March 11th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
[...] I’ve added Tales From My Tiny Kingdom to the blogroll. Anne Glamore, the blogmistress there, was the instructor for the blogging session at Writing Today. She courageously and gracefully challenged Richard Schickel after his offhand dismissal of bloggers. I’d like to think she embarrassed him, but I’m not sure he’s capable of experiencing that particular feeling. [...]
March 12th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
I don’t think they had any idea there was a need for more than one session, and I think I was overly ambitious in trying to be all things to all people in my allotted time. I certainly don’t think the organizers were being snobby or were ill-prepared. The registration was slow until the last minute, and there was no way to know how many people attending were experienced bloggers or not.
Again, I’m happy to try and answer any Q’s anyone has, although y’all have the blogging part down!
anneglamore@gmail.com
March 12th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
[...] ***************************************** (Here’s one account of the story, and evidence that the story is making its way around the blogosphere. Mr. Schickel was NOT wearing the unusual hat depicted in the second link, by the way.) Posted by Anne Glamore @ 9:42 pm • Glamorous Escapades, Deep Thoughts [...]
March 13th, 2007 at 6:50 am
Lisa: Seneca Review, WOW! I know grownups who would not hesitate to brag on that. (Although they would never say “I have to brag”–they would manage to just work it into the conversation, in an oh-so-casual way.)
Congratulations to both your girls!
March 18th, 2007 at 5:45 am
Oh, quit bitching. If you want to be taken seriously as a blogger go to a blogger’s conference, not a writer’s conference.
Most of what I see is selfish, self-indulgent, petty, and only takes on any meaning because the sound of the keyboard and the appearance of the text “in print” creates an importance that does not occur when the same material is transmitted over a cell phone from the Ford Expedition while waiting in line to pick up the kids from the over the mountain Junior High.