October 28th, 2010 / 12:15 pm
 Mean

MEAN WEEK Writing Prompt

How about you just go write something, asshole? Stop: blogging about writing, commenting on blogs about writing, surfing the web for youtube videos that might somehow “inspire” you to think about your “craft”, hanging out at dull author readings, having a beer with a boring writer after a dull author reading, having a beer (or five) alone when the laptop is sitting right there with a barely considered manuscript on it, starting another online literary journal or blog, playing video games and trying somehow to appreciate them on a “narrative” level, reading a book because you are “researching” something, getting involved in some “project” that is loosely connected to “literary” work, masturbating while high, etc. etc., and write. I mean, you’re a “writer,” right?

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11 Comments

  1. October 28th, 2010 / 4:25 pm P. H. Madore—

      Yeah, but I scheduled my book tour around Hate Week, so no worries.

  2. October 28th, 2010 / 4:38 pm niina—

      also stop going to the bar and hammered-ly talking about how you’re a writer (see the other day’s beer post)

  3. October 28th, 2010 / 5:09 pm wily_codger—

      Dudes, people need to be discouraged from writing, not encouraged.

  4. October 28th, 2010 / 7:57 pm Richard Thomas—

      Right on, Matthew.

  5. October 28th, 2010 / 9:46 pm Matthew Simmons—

      This is, of course, entirely self-directed.

  6. October 28th, 2010 / 9:47 pm Matthew Simmons—

      Seriously. Go to a bar for the right reasons: to meet and flirt with other drunks.

      EDIT:

      I suppose you can use “Hey, I’m a writer,” as a technique for attracted members of the opposite or same sex, sure. (If you do, which freaking bar are you going to?) But move past that really quickly.

  7. October 29th, 2010 / 1:28 am Vladmir—

      please, write every meandering thought down. when you die, someone will find it. you’ll be the great undiscovered blogger of the 21st century. that’s what i hope for.

  8. October 29th, 2010 / 3:04 am Guest713—

      Yeah, this is one great post. How about go live some actual life in the actual world and like magic, you’ll find mucho you can’t help but write about and therefore be, um… a writer by accident and definition instead of by proclamation. Then for a compare and contrast exercise, return to your safe, cloistered, cliquish, writerish writerlyness fake world and fly in ever concentric circles until you disappear up your own asshole.

  9. October 29th, 2010 / 5:02 pm Matthew Simmons—

      Everyone lives an actual life.

  10. October 29th, 2010 / 6:50 pm Guest713—

      actual semantic disintegration

  11. October 30th, 2010 / 4:03 am this-is-a-god-damn-roundup | Metazen—

      […] The Ultimate Writing Prompt. […]