Calling Successful Authors ‘Poor Writers’ Only Makes You Look Bitter

Being embroiled in a Twitter argument showed me the arrogance and lack of self-awareness that some aspiring writers display

There is a group of aspiring writers on Twitter who like to bash bestselling authors and claim their writing and storytelling are crap. Similar groups of writers exist on every platform. They are the high brow gatekeepers of ‘good writing’ who haven’t made it themselves yet, but who know exactly what quality work looks like when they see it.

How did those pesky successful writers make it on bestseller lists, then? Apparently, the vast majority of the population wouldn’t be able to tell a genius piece of work if it’s aggressively marketed to them through #writerslift a hundred times a day on Twitter. These people just don’t recognise real, raw talent when they see it. Instead, they flock to what is popular like the sheeple they are.

I had a discussion with a Twitter writer recently. Someone had posed an interesting question for the writing community:

‘Would you rather be a good writer or a best-selling writer?’

Well, you have to be a good writer to be a best-selling writer. You cannot have poor writing abilities and lack imagination but still go on to create bestsellers.

I didn’t think that was a controversial opinion.

And I know what you’re going to say — but what about Twilight, but what about Fifty Shades of Grey? Guess what, those books sold because they appealed to a wide sub-section of the population. Their ideas resonated with people and touched them in one way or another. The writing was good enough to be picked up by a traditional publisher and polished further.

So yes, you can’t be a bestselling author unless you’re also a good writer. I thought this was fairly obvious until I answered this seemingly innocent question. Another Twitter user then saw fit to school me on my ridiculous opinion that apparently made them laugh their effing butt off.

And look, the person made a good point — we are talking about the art and craft of writing here. I maintain that you have to master both the art and craft of writing to find yourself on a list of bestsellers. If there are exceptions to this rule, they are very few. And when I see comments like this one on Twitter, I think they tend to come from a place of jealousy and an extreme lack of self-awareness.

For someone who holds writers to such high standards, this person themselves did not appear to have particularly strong writing skills. I had a look at their other content out of curiosity and noticed that their craft could definitely use some improvement too.

It’s not something I would normally dwell on, but I do believe if you’re going to criticise established authors for their lack of storytelling ability or a poor grasp of the craft of writing, you better be pretty damn good yourself. Otherwise, it comes off a bit bitter, doesn’t it? But I digress. Nobody is perfect and we’re all constantly improving in our chosen fields.

And getting traditionally published is hard. All things being equal, your chances of being published as a new writer are estimated to be between 1–2%. Those are not great odds, especially when you’ve spent hours labouring over a deeply personal project.

To beat those odds, you need to be something special. So why is it that some aspiring writers feel the need to put down their peers who succeeded? It won’t make you a better writer, it won’t make you successful. You’re still going to wake up tomorrow and fire up your laptop and get on with writing and experience all the crippling self-doubt and anxiety that comes with your chosen profession. I know it, you know it, we all know it.

So, in this instance, can we try and stick to the golden rule — if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

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