here is a thing I see a lot in our modern world, that through that simply buying (or doing any minimum effort) gives you mastery over a skill. Possibly it comes from all the movies we watch where a montage is used to show months/years of work. Even Charles Atlas had it – the “Hero of the Beach” bulked up in a couple of panels.

You might have seen young teens (and twenties) drive. They get themselves a spiffy little toy car (either on their own loans or gifted by over-indulgent parents). And now, suddenly, because they have a quick car, they think they have the skills to maneuver about like a Nascar driver in heavy traffic. The irony here is that drivers with skill see them coming and either open or close gaps (as they see fit) – they react and safeguard these children from jam-smearing themselves down the road. In attempting to show off their heady independence,  it is the motorists around them than are keeping them safe. In a nutshell, we are babysitting them.

Motorcyclists are the same way. They talk about safety yet overtake (at night, with a single hard-to-judge headlight) at 40+mph. Unless you see them way back and understand that tragedy might ensue, fatalities may occur. Others are relied upon to protect your wild-and-free ass.

Modern life gives us so many ways for amateurs to endanger us with their lack of basic understanding and skill. E-bikes and drones are often handled by people who pull them out of the box and take them for a spin. As a trail-riding cyclist, I can’t tell you how many times e-bikes have passed me at 10+mph, way too fast on a pedestrian/cycling trail. The other day, I saw a teen riding along the trail, holding a wheelie on his little mini-bike. Got way over and kept an eye on him.Yes, protected him (and mostly me) from disaster.

As for my skills on a bike, after a quarter century? I ride with flashing lights and a bright yellow jersey. I also have a bike bell mounted for use in passing others. I know what I’m doing. I didn’t just get my wheels.

So why am I bringing this up in a media/writing blog? Well, another thing I see – with the introduction to vanity and self-publishing, I see a lot of writers producing content. They think they understand writing, craftsmanship and polish. And word processing makes it so easy. Without having read much of anything (either modern fiction or the classics) they think they know what they are doing. Like toy-car drivers, rice-rocketeers and drone-aces, they think they understand the art of storytelling.

I won’t even detail the years of writing classes I’ve taken, everything from college to weekly groups. I will point out that I’ve read – a lot. Since 2010 (when I started reviewing books I’ve read) I have hundreds of books I’ve gotten through. Wanna see them? Go HERE.

What passes for “concepts” and “ideas” in the mind of a wanna-be writer are simply “tropes” (i.e. standardized and pre-packaged plots). If you think you have a great idea that includes vampires or werewolves or something all-powerful or a man seeking vengeance, you are toying with the simplest of tropes. A good writer might make it work. An amateur writer has no idea – like a teen driver flying along the highway at high speeds in rain, he doesn’t know how inexperienced he is until he hits that guardrail.

This reminds me of something that happened to me. In my last job, I’d go outside on the back patio at lunch and write my novels. I was taking things I learned from other books, other groups and careful consideration and crafting something.Then one day, some guy who I’d never seen carrying a book came out and told me he had a great idea for a science fiction novel. If I agreed to sign a document acknowledging his idea, I could write it and we’d split the profits 50/50. I stopped him right there. Told him I wasn’t interested being his secretarial pool. In fact, I refused to hear his idea (or even a “tantalizing” part of it) because I didn’t want to close myself off to any ideas in any way similar to his which I might have in future.

And really, I didn’t need his “ideas” (or his world-worn tropes) to write. I’m a writer. What he suggests is insulting to me – not to sound elitists but I write. You watch Netflix and dream of fame (or some sort of montage where I write and then we’re both walking the red carpet for our movie premier).

No thanks. I’m a writer. You are nothing more than a viewer, a consumer, a target market.

Maybe you need to get a fast motorcycle or a drone and stop bothering me.

Let writers write.

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