The other day, this phrase was going around on Twitter. The original tweet was as follows:
HARSH WRITING ADVICE:
Your writer friends are also your competition.
Sorry.
(Inserting a screen grab didn’t work, and I didn’t want to embed the actual tweet–no need to call out the author by name.)
Does this sentiment speak to an uncomfortable truth about our beloved craft? Is writing ultimately a brutal, cutthroat business? When you finally finish your book, will all your friends betray you in a ruthless and nihilistic struggle for power, like the end of Far Cry 2?
Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating for the purpose of mocking this tweet. It’s not fair really; the offender already got dragged mercilessly for this. And, in some very broad sense, his advice isn’t entirely wrong.
There’s nothing wrong with friendly competition. When I sit down to write, I am competing with every other writer–I’m trying to write better stories, create more compelling characters, capture ideas that no one else has captured, after all.
But the competition ends when I step away from the manuscript. Competing against your fellow writers when you’re actually writing is just and proper; but competing against them in public forums, or even on such crass metrics as sales or reviews, is simply not allowable. It strikes at the integrity of the craft itself.
When I’m not actively writing, I’m trying to promote the craft–because if no one is reading anything, then there’s not much point in writing, is there?
It’s similar to sports. Every quarterback in the NFL is competing with the others. But each one also has respect for his rivals, and for the game itself. When playing against one another, each will try to play better than the other. But when, say, talking about to the press, each will immediately state his respect for his counterparts.
At the risk of being repetitive, not only are we competing for the attention of people who read books, but we are also competing against every other form of entertainment.
You think the tweet above was harsh? My advice is remorselessly brutal. We are peeling back the thin veneer of civilization and revealing the true Conrad-esque dog-eat-doggery that is the business of telling people stories.
Or maybe I’m being over-dramatic again. Anyway, though; the point is that most people don’t read because they have other, easier entertainment options available. And there’s no way you can make reading a book easier than watching a movie.
Now we are starting to understand the true nature of writing. We may be intensely competitive among ourselves, when practicing our craft, but must present a united front to the outside world, in the face of the challenge from other, rival art forms.
I think of writers as a sort of order of monks. Like the Jedi or something. Being a writer, in an age of a million temptations, requires discipline and focus. We writers can rightfully take pride in choosing to devote ourselves to an art that requires saying “no” to doing something easier.
Your writer friends are your competition, yes. But they are also your comrades and your teachers and your readers.
Writers Supporting Writers 
I can’t argue with this, Berthold. Reading is a form of entertainment, only one of many. We’re far from time when listening to the storyteller was pretty much the only choice.
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I never saw the original tweet that inspired that descent on Twitter. It’s probably a good thing.
I don’t think I’ve ever thought of myself as being in competition with other writers. I’m in competition with myself, and yes, we are all in competition with other forms of entertainment. But with other writers? I guess that would only be the case if I knew there was another writer out there writing the same story as me. Then I would want to try to make sure my story was better. But that never happens, does it? Well, actually, it sort of did with me.
One of my ideas for a story was a post-apocalyptic tale about a man and a boy traveling through a devastated world. I even started writing the opening for the story. Then I read The Road and realized I would never, ever top McCarthy’s telling of the tale, so I never went any further on that story.
But … I don’t see there being any competition between you and me, or Audrey and me, or Stephen King and me.
This whole thing is just another example of somebody extrapolating their view of the thign into a generalization they think applies to everybody else. Sigh … another rule of writing.
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I guess when I think of competition (maybe not the best word) among writers, I think of little things. For example, there’s a description you wrote of the way the nighttime snowfall muffles sound in “One Night in Bridgeport.” When I read it, I thought, “damn, I wish I could write like that.” Anytime I think that, it reminds me of ways I need to improve my writing. Ideally, I want to write things that make other people say, “damn, I wish I could write like that.” 🙂
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I agree that competition is not the right word. Maybe it is more of a challenge than a competition. A motivation rather than a contest.
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I laugh when I see things like that. Somebody loves themselves a bit too much. Here’s the thing. There are readers, many millions, who read a certain genre or genres. They cannot consume all the books out there even if, like my husband, they read three a week. IMHO, writing is not the biggest “competition”, marketing is. Some are able to figure out a plan that gets attention to their books and some aren’t. In my case, it’s an, “If I knew then what I know now.” Marketing is a massive amount of work and creatives want to create. Fortunately, there are more resources out there now to help than there were in 2013. Now I have to ask, “Is this worth the money, or not. It ain’t easy and it ain’t free.
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You make a very good point that the competition is in the marketing of books.
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I’ve always thought of writing (with the exception of awards and contests) as different from sport in that there can be an infinite number of winners, not just one.
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That’s a good way to look at it!
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There is always someone better or not quite as good as each one of us. This is true in all fields–because writing is largely subjective (each reader likes something different, same for movies, music, art, fashion, interior design etc). Some sports with scores or times may be easier to measure. Even something as banal as a read and critique group have participants who do not like to read genre or type of submission because it is “not in their wheelhouse.” Even mere bloggers may surreptitiously exam each other’s blog posts for the number of likes, comments, or followers.
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I think your last comment sums it up – writers are a different breed, supportive and helpful towards each other. We are all readers as well as writers and love books and the written word. I never watch movies. I am serious with this comment having watched three movies over the past five years. I think you will never find a movie that isn’t a total disappointment if you’ve read the book.
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I was expecting to see a treatise on “harsh writing advice”. I was then going to comment on the fact that the harsher the better. The worst critique is an empty platitude, “Nice story.” The best criticism is a scathing, detailed review of why the writing or the story failed the reader. Yeah! More like that, please.
Panem et circenses. We’re just the many-million-masses grovelling in the paper dust for paltry handouts. The true Novel Gladiators battle there on the NY Times best sellers list. We, on the other hand, dance in glee at the smallest of crusts thrown our way. If that’s “competition” then I’d rather starve.
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I don’t think criticism has to be harsh to be authentic or useful. Unless by “harsh” you mean frank and unvarnished. Good criticism notes both what works and what doesn’t.
And metaphorical crusts are only worse than starving only when you’re expecting or striving for a a three course dinner.
The world of writing has changed. Once there was a small group of anointed Writers. Now there are hordes of us vying for the attention of readers who have many other ways besides reading to entertain themselves. So crumbs may be all that’s left for any one of us.
I agree, though– “Nice story” is an empty platitude.
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I think the notion of competing against one’s self seems more appropriate if there is any competition. I want to think that most writers improve over time. Comparing ourselves to other writers seems silly because there are so many writers in the world. Sales aren’t a direct reflection of the quality of the writing. Some folks market themselves better while others remain undiscovered.
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All very good points!
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