Hubris moves in mysterious ways

[rolanni]

So there's a discussion over at jaylake's place about the nature of writers, the contention being that interesting writers are interesting people. I disagreed, based on my own wide-ranging uninteresting-ness (with which kaygo begged to disagree), and the even wider-ranging charm of my characters, based on reader report.

This morning at the gym, I fell to talking with a woman who I had worked with during the Bean Christmas Season. She, retired of something to do with accounting, banking, or perhaps both, is casting about for a summer job, to keep herself busy, and confessed that she was looking forward to November, when she would sign on again with Bean. I may have looked a mite dubious, because she asked what I was doing to keep myself busy.

Well, I said, I've been writing a book.

Oh? On what subject?

I did the short form of husband co-author, twelve books, available at Children's Bookstore right here in town, or at Barnes and Noble and Borders, down to Augusta or Portland, and gave her a card.

That was interesting. As in, my being a writer was interesting to someone who is not a writer, and she instantly grasped why I might not be eager to go "out" to work.

Then she realized that, though we had worked together and see each other occasionally at the gym, I had never been properly "placed", which she speedily proceeded to do: Where did I live? Did I know so-and-so? Where had I lived before? Was I related to the Albion Lees or the Waterville Lees?

So, being a writer is interesting, perhaps, to those in other lines of work. But I still don't believe that one needs to be a deeply interesting person in order to write compelling stories. An observer with a good ear, yes. Possessed of esoteric information and a store of bon mots and witticisms, which are delivered with charm and grace in face-to-face situations -- no.

Comments

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I think writers make normal life interesting, not that interesting people make good writers, or that writing makes normal people interesting. :)

[janni.livejournal.com]

I often feel like being a writer makes me kind of boring, because all the time spent writing means I'm not getting out into the world and doing stuff.

And while I enjoy hearing writers talk about their work, what's really cool is hearing someoone doing something I know little about talk about their work.

So maybe the "interesting" thing really is a matter of perspective, and what you're already used to, what's familiar.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Part of the contention was, however, that while writers may not sparkle, shine, and dance atop tables, they do tend to be good listeners, which is enough in some folks' opinion to trip them over into 'interesting.' Then followed the contention that listening in and of itself is interesting because the listener is engaged and interacting, albeit quietly.

Being a fan of the one-on-one in-depth conversation--I absolutely suck at parties and mixing--I tend to find other writers interesting because they're usually pretty well grounded in a variety of subjects.

[anghara.livejournal.com]

Being a fan of the one-on-one in-depth conversation--I absolutely suck at parties and mixing-

Cousin!...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

*waves copy of THE INTROVERT ADVANTAGE*

I get edgy when I read the parts extolling the superiority of introversion over extroversion--if both types didn't exist, nothing would ever get done--but overall it's a good book.

I enjoyed the part in which, iirc, one introvert described a large gathering he'd attended. He needed a break from the crush, and wandered up to a balcony-type seating area and sat to watch the people. After a while, a few more intros wandered into the same area, and they all decompressed/talked/did the intro thing while the party swirled beneath them.

It's called 'barnacling", I think. I recall anemones mentioned as well, but anemone doesn't lend itself to verbing.

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

"Anemonizing"? You're right, it sounds like a poor combination of becoming anonymous and numinous, but mostly is just a tongue twister.

Perhaps "encysting" would be a good verb? Along with all the potential confusion with "insisting" when mentioned in conversation.

Now I know what to answer when someone asks me at a party what I'm doing, instead of watching people. "I am barnacling" or "I am encysting" sounds much more dangerous, and will probably drive off those gregarious people who insist on introducing the barnacles.

Thanks.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I think this may tie in with Sayer's insistance that Lord Peter was a much more interesting person than she was.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

I don't think writers are any better judges of how interesting they are to the world at large than they are of their own work. What is utterly mundane to us can be exotic and glamorous to the non-writer.

I find most writers quite interesting, and usually, the better they write, the more interesting they are. They have quick minds and delightful wit, and they're great fun to talk to. The only truly horrible bores I've met have been, in my experience, pretty poor writers as well; seems to me there is an inverse relation between the quality of the work and the willingness of the author to bend your ear about every tiny detail of it.

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

I don't think writers need to be interesting, so much as they need to be interested. I may not have done something particularly exciting or interested, but I'm more than happy to talk to the people who HAVE done those things and learn all I can about them, or research the stuff in books.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I don't think writers are any better judges of how interesting they are to the world at large than they are of their own work. says dancinghorse,

and I agree. Also with janni when she points out that interesting can be a matter of perspective.

Surely we have all been in a situation where we've read a book we found interesting only to discover someone else who found it uninteresting. And I certainly have been in situations where I had a darned good idea that the people I was talking with found me dead boring. Naturally, this causes me to gravitate toward people who at least make a pretense of pretending to my face that I am interesting.

Last autumn, at a convention in Utah, I went to a talk given by the writer Allan Cole about how his youth (growing up as the child of a CIA agent and living in various hot spots around the world) had influenced his decision to become a writer and the kind of writer he was.

At one point in the conversation, an audience member asked him about some contradictory and not particularly nice person he had described, and Cole smiled and said, enthusiastically, "People are just so damned interesting, aren't they?"

As soon as he said it, and given the way he said it, I knew I would have to read at least one of his books. Because HE FOUND people interesting. Not because he was, or was not, interesting (although of course he was).

[origamilady.livejournal.com]

As dancinghorse wrote:
"What is utterly mundane to us can be exotic and glamorous to the non-writer."

Amen to that! You all (the writers here :)) write exceedingly well. I find myself constantly in awe of the authors that I read (and re-read) In being able to create a world (worlds?) that are believable and a story that actually hangs together? My Ghods! =)

However *shrug* writing is what you do, you do it every day (most likely) and you get to see all the dead ends and mistakes that you go through in your rough drafts. Stands to reason that y'all aren't going to look on it as anything to shake your tail at.
All I can say, is from my own perspective - Authors are damn interesting people. Maybe not so much for their lives *shrug* I can't really judge that part though, but in what *they* find interesting, never mind the above mentioned stringing a whole bunch of random factoids together and making a gods-bedamned-story.

Ive read some of y'alls books for a while, and I can't tell you, how neat I find it as a fan to be able to talk/post with you all.