Terrible things people post on social media

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I don’t know enough about her to know for sure but maybe she’s just winding up film fans? In which case these tweets are great :smiley:

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That was my first thought.

Nor can Blazing Saddles (western) or The Producers (historical drama or musical). Bad luck Mel Brooks!

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https://mobile.twitter.com/KealanBurke/status/1379874377550987269

More for the discussion under it. I obviously get that making anything creative takes effort and work and all that but, honestly, so much of that skill comes from being able to do it as a hobby in whatever spare time you have (which is a massive privilege). Get properly irked by this kind of gatekeepery shite, especially around something as fundamental as imagination and creativity

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I’m a bit conflicted by this. Obviously no one should be discouraged from pursuing a creative passion, but I think it’s also fair to defend things like writing as a valuable skill / trade that can’t just be done by anyone. I say this as someone who writes for a living - marketing / copywriting etc - and is constantly being undermined by people who assume it’s something anyone can do. And when imposter syndrome hits, it can feel like that, but then you see what the senior manager comes up with for an article and realise, no, actually it turns out not everyone can.

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It’s very, “Don’t encourage them, Jeremy!” isn’t it?

Unlike art and music, writing is consistently undervalued as a creative skill because it’s something almost everyone does almost every day - for a certain value of do anyway. It’s only people who have sat down to try and write prose who fully appreciate it’s like either of the others in terms of practice, learning and natural talent, and unfortunately most haven’t gotten around to that.

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Not bitter at all about how much part-time artists earn in comparison to writer counterparts btw

Here’s a spicy take for the “my neurologist could easily write a book” crowd: it’s much, much easier to be a doctor than a professional novelist.

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I failed badly at A-Level Chemistry whilst breezing through English Lang and History. On the other hand: Yes, 100%.

There are about five people from my year at school who became doctors, and at least one of those is a total bozo I wouldn’t trust to make me a coffee.

How many people from my year became novelists? ZERO. Check and mate.

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It’s much easier to write a novel than to do brain surgery though.

Being good enough to make a living from it is totally different.

Both brain surgery and writing a novel are equally easy. Doing them well… :man_shrugging:

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Think you have to be quite well-trained at brain surgery before they’ll let you have a crack at someone’s parietal - so anyone who does must be reasonably good at it (you’d hope)

But there’s no guarantee of quality from novelists, even successful ones, e.g. JK Rowling. You can be a published author and still be shit, whereas shit brain surgeons get struck off (you’d hope). Different standards innit

Shit brain surgeons get struck off, but JK Rowling was cancelled, which is much more severe

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My daily doings and skills are firmly in the realm of design/engineering. And there are some fucking awful writers there. Whether they choose not to make the effort, or simply don’t have the ability is not always clear (though evidence of the latter often shows through). I make no specific claims about personal achievement, but I try my best.

To be a designer or engineer of repute you absolutely need to be a ‘good writer’. But well-written, easily digested, unambiguous technical language is but merely one aspect of ‘good writing’.

To be able to write with flair and infectious inspiration is, without question, something that transcends basic, functional, ability. I’m not, myself, a particularly keen reader of novels or fiction. Nevertheless, there are definitely plenty of times where I’ve been taken aback by the skill of a writer where the words just flow so well (usually with something written about music: often a review).

No-one should be discouraged from dipping their toes into artistic waters. But there’s nothing wrong with pointing out the deft skill of an accomplished writer.

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Good editing is also a skill. :smirk:

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It’s not just ‘novels’ though is it…how many footballers have technically ‘written a book’. Have lost count of how many ‘twitter-famous’ people have a book, the main hook of which is that they’re twitter-famous.

Seems like everyone thinks they can write a kids book, too. Which they can. But it’ll probably be tosh. Writing well for kids is waaaaaaay harder than most people would give credit for.

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