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>Yes, you are. You just tell yourself that you are not. Eeesh. Any able-bodied person can walk a marathon, given sufficient motivation. You might be able to ru

>Yes, you are. You just tell yourself that you are not. Eeesh. Any able-bodied person can walk a marathon, given sufficient motivation. You might be able to run parts of it, but you can't run a marathon through sheer force of will if you haven't done the training. A book is technically just a bunch of bound pages, so anyone can write one in the loosest sense of the word. I can just type the word "beige" 80,000 times and call it a day. Writing a book that someone will actually read past the first chapter requires a certain level of skill. The author isn't telling people not to try - his closing paragraph makes that clear - but he's warning people of the amount of work and practice involved in writing something that people want to read. To quote the great Ronnie Coleman, "everybody wanna to be a bodybuilder, but ain't nobody wanna lift no heavy-ass weight". The number of people who like the idea of being an author is vastly greater than the number of people willing to learn how to write well. If you enjoy the process of writing, then by all means write for your own pleasure. If you harbour dreams of being the next J.K. Rowling, you're likely to be sorely disappointed.

ALittleLight 8y ago
I think "if you haven't done the training" is the operative phrase. Similarly nobody could write a novel if they hadn't learned to write, or read enough, etc. If a healthy person wants to run a marathon they will be able to by a process of training. The original metaphor is a bit off. Anyone who puts in the effort could write fifty thousand words on the same theme or plot. Likewise anyone could complete a marathon with enough training and effort. A better comparison would be writing a novel that people would pay to read, and completing a marathon so quickly that people would pay you to do it. While everyone can do the amateur version of these tasks not everyone can do the professional certain.
- jdietrich 8y ago
  >A better comparison would be writing a novel that people would pay to read, and completing a marathon so quickly that people would pay you to do it. It's not merely a case of writing something that someone would pay to read, but writing something that someone would read at all. That's a considerably lower hurdle, but one that many authors never vault. Every day, the slush piles of publishers swell with lovingly-crafted novels that will, in all likelihood, never be read by anyone. The parallel I might draw is with a singer so dreadfully tone deaf that their neighbours lodge a complaint, or a comedian so bad that they are booed off stage at an open-mic night. Most first-time novelists are precisely that awful - their work is not merely of insufficient quality to attract a paying audience, but actively repellent. Few budding authors are prepared for that level of disappointment.
megy 8y ago
> You might be able to run parts of it, but you can't run a marathon through sheer force of will if you haven't done the training. Yes, and you can't write a book if you can't read, or structure a sentence, or have a computer/typewriter/crayon, etc...

ALittleLight 8y ago

I think "if you haven't done the training" is the operative phrase. Similarly nobody could write a novel if they hadn't learned to write, or read enough, etc. If a healthy person wants to run a marathon they will be able to by a process of training. The original metaphor is a bit off. Anyone who puts in the effort could write fifty thousand words on the same theme or plot. Likewise anyone could complete a marathon with enough training and effort. A better comparison would be writing a novel that people would pay to read, and completing a marathon so quickly that people would pay you to do it. While everyone can do the amateur version of these tasks not everyone can do the professional certain.

jdietrich 8y ago
>A better comparison would be writing a novel that people would pay to read, and completing a marathon so quickly that people would pay you to do it. It's not merely a case of writing something that someone would pay to read, but writing something that someone would read at all. That's a considerably lower hurdle, but one that many authors never vault. Every day, the slush piles of publishers swell with lovingly-crafted novels that will, in all likelihood, never be read by anyone. The parallel I might draw is with a singer so dreadfully tone deaf that their neighbours lodge a complaint, or a comedian so bad that they are booed off stage at an open-mic night. Most first-time novelists are precisely that awful - their work is not merely of insufficient quality to attract a paying audience, but actively repellent. Few budding authors are prepared for that level of disappointment.

megy 8y ago

> You might be able to run parts of it, but you can't run a marathon through sheer force of will if you haven't done the training. Yes, and you can't write a book if you can't read, or structure a sentence, or have a computer/typewriter/crayon, etc...