Gaiman and Clarion

The Short Version: Neil Gaiman tweeted that you have to go to Clarion to be a writer. It's caused a furore. More here

The Long Version:
Extremely rich writer tweets that you have to spend a lot of money to be a writer. Two things occur to me in my cynicism. First, few rich people manage their own tweets and many of them get paid for endorsement. Second, pulling the ladder up after you is a fairly common problem among people who make it.

My Opinion? My favourite writers didn't go to writer's training schools. There weren't any. Christie and Asimov did not go to writer's schools. As far as I can tell, Clarion's selling point is that you get to mix with people who are already writing what the Great and Good want to read and have connections with publishing houses that will publish you if they like you. And suddenly I wonder if this is a simple explanation for so many of the books nowadays all sounding exactly the same.

Many of the writers I have read, even through Bookangel are easily comparable. I don;t think many have been to Clarion but they are definitely writers.

Disclaimer: I am not and have never been a fan of Neil Gaiman's work. I can take it or leave it, but it has always seemed a little derivative: I discovered the Endless long after Tanith Lee's Flat Earth series, and it seemed incredibly unfair that she lost her publisher and he didn't. I discovered his fairytale stories long after reading Red as Blood (and there's a book on the site that is stronger), and Neverwhere came long after stories like Vampire Tapestry. So I'm not over-inclined to be nice.

Anyone else?

 

Rich man gets paid money to tell other people to spend money in a way that helps him make money and shelters his job. Like that's new.

He works for them, doesn't he, so where's his disclaimer?

 

It's shortcutting for people who want to think they can be as good as Gaiman without doing any of the hard work that goers into writing. Sure they may get a load of hints and tips as to how to write better, but a course like that is not going to be turning out Booker prize winners after one course.

And because it's got his name all over him and he taps into that cool and edgy style (the non-Frank Miller version) that people enjoy, there are going to be some suckers who think that by spending the extra they can be just like him. Nothing new about that in any walk of life.

How do you think he makes his money nowadays, I doubt it's just from writing? Especially if 140 characters can earn you as much as your next book in a little bit of advertising. I mean, who wouldn't?

 

This feels icky.

 

Well it's not like he's covering himself in honey...

 

If he teaches the course and gets paid for it, that's tweets a bit off.

 

I'm disappointed in him.

 

Perhaps, but then can you say you would not take such an offer if it paid your bills?

 

Wouldn't begrudge him doing some work to pay the bills, it's what most people do.

Maybe he should have been a little clearer, but if he's giving people what they want and they are prepared to pay for it, what's the problem.