Mysterious_one

Hi I haven't been here for a while...anyway, I hope to be a writer, be published by the time I'm 25 (In five years.) Anyway, i'm doing this assignment for uni, and it's I've chosen the topic of how writers are socialised within society and I have a few questions: how do people treat you when they find out you're a writer? Do they attached wrn out stereotypes to you or expect you to act a certain way?

If anyone could help me with some answers, I would greatly apprecite it
And there's another question...does your cultural background have an influence on how you are percieved as a writer or how you percieve yourself as a writer?

americanwriter

I think some immediately have a vision of that whole romantic nonesense of the "starving artist" or some braniac that sits, dressed in a smoking jacket with a pipe and horn-rimmed glasses, pondering one of the great classics of literature.

Writers are investigators, active, alert, questioning, and exploring. They write to satisfy a passion. They write to answer some mystery, for themselves and just maybe for someone else.

Most, when I tell them I'm a writer they tend to look somewhat sympathetic, like "Oh, so you don't have a real job then? I'm sorry."

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safari invasion

Well, for me, since I am a teenager, if I were to say to someone, "Hi, I'm a writer." that person would say: "No, you're not."

I think typically the writer people imagine is a fifty-year old guy with a white beard and thick glasses. People can't imagine that all people write. Writers come from all age groups. The problem is that society really doesn't except that. They have a stereotype (each individual there own I would suppose) about what a writer is supposed to be.

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DL Ferguson

Right after I tell people I'm a writer they always ask me: "Have you had anything published?"

The popular public conceit is this: Are you making any money from your writing? If not, then you're looked upon as a wannabe and most people don't even want to continue the conversation (unless they are also intersted in writing and just want to kick the willy bobo) People didn't take me seriously until I started selling my stories on The Internet and then when my book was published people stopped asking me when I was going to go back to working a 9 to 5.

Mysterious_one

Thanks for your replies I agree with both of you, especially the "Oh, so you don't have a real job then? I'm sorry" comment. I tell people I'm studying at uni in creative writing, and they either say: "Wow! that's cool," or something to that effect, or, "What are you going to do f after uni?" Sort of like the people you come across. I'm not sure about the stereotype with ages, but I agree with the "Starving artist" one, though.

Thanks again

Dragonscales

lol I get the "Oh, what are you doing after Uni?" sometimes too, kinda feels like they're more commenting on the fact that "Oh, so you go to school, well I guess that's something". A while back I probably fitted into the "crazy old hermit" stereotype alot more than I do now, I never went out much, was up all night writing, slept all day, was alchoholic, socially depraved. But hell, it worked for me and some of my best pieces were written in that time. Now however I am far, far from that lifestyle. I still write, not as often, but I am also now alot busier with school and everything else. I can't wait till I do finish uni though, get a decent job as a critic, journo, editor, maybe get into T.V. and turn round to the wankers out there who say what do you do for a living and say "I'm a writer, and I also make $50,000 upwards a year" and watch their mouths drop. Superficial idiots.

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To live in a world of dreams is to bring about a reality of nightmares. This world is not made for the eyes of the innocent nor for the ambitions of the wicked and happiness is far and few between. Be wary of joy for sorrow is but a footstep away...

Airborneguy

I recieve a lot of flack for geteting into this bussiness. You know what? By writing something, anything at all, you are inviting someone to criticise you whether you like it or not. should that stop you? Hell no!

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A coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man only once...

Kat

I think that people in my life tend to look upon it more as a hobby than a future career. If I was a computer programmer that worked out of my home I'm sure that I'd be given time and space to do my work but as I writer I'm not. I am expected to to do it anywhere and anytime that I can squeeze in. Drives me crazy. Then when I stay up late at night after the kids are asleep my husband complains. Errg. I feel like a teenager again when no one takes you seriously.

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I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. -Sarah Williams

gabriella

Wow, I almost don't want to post here now. Everyone thinks it's really cool that I'm a writer, and they always want to know what my novel's about. I never get asked if I have anything published, cuz I'm never in the situation to say "I'm a writer." It's mostly "I want to be a writer" or "I loove writing." Alot of people keep telling me that I would make a great writer, especially my mom. I don't fit the stereotype at all, because I can eiter seem like a ditz, or a slut, or a prep. I'm 14, too.

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You write by sitting down and writing - Bernard Malamud.

VixenRED

Well for young people who want to write, we fit excellently into stereotype. A lot of people need high accolades and proof that you do, talk the way you walk.

For myself, I’ve always had a niche for writing, even though I had dyslexia. (I had pretty cruel, or very honest teachers, anyway you want to look at it.) They said I should be something other than a writer, because at that moment in time, I had difficulty expressing myself. (Mind you, I was eight) I believe if you’re good at something, stick with it, see how far you go, see how far you expand and then in ten years watch their reactions.
To me it’s all about mental psychology, you’ve got to go through hell before you can write about it. I speak openly at the fact, that like you all, we are writers; amateurs, novices, and masters. When a person says you are not a writer, its is either one of two main things.
One: they haven’t seen your work; they haven’t read it, thoroughly, and deeply.
Two: They haven’t read in years, so they are smug at the fact you are doing something creative and you enjoy it immensely.

Of course they are many other reasons, but usually with the low brained people i deal with, its usually two.

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