Will it be clear out of style by the time I become good at it? Now that no one has time to read anyway and everyone can spout off their brilliant opinions online. Just wondering.
Is Writing Becoming Obsolete?
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Even if you spout it online, it's still writing. And people still read - they just read more in other formats.
Readers always have time for it. There's 24 hours in everyone's day and I wouldn't let one (day that is, not hour) go by without reading something.
It's a misinformed notion that writing is becoming obsolete. It will never die. It will never even diminish.
It will grow, like the seeds of madness KTC planted in my mind long long ago, only to flower when he throws the switch in his laboratory!
The switch is no longer in the lab. I carry a remote. I like to send you twinges. I hate preparedness. I like the element of surprise the frequent twinges afford.
Well, what I'm worried about is the medium of writing.
Someone told me that where they live print newspapers are pretty much history. More and more stories are appearing online. Therefore someone will still have to write the stories, but they won't appear in the form we're used to. That's kinda sad. I write for a newspaper and I don't want to see it vanish. And I don't want to see the Sunday paper stop showing up at my doorstep on a Sunday morning.
Someone told me that where they live print newspapers are pretty much history. More and more stories are appearing online. Therefore someone will still have to write the stories, but they won't appear in the form we're used to. That's kinda sad. I write for a newspaper and I don't want to see it vanish. And I don't want to see the Sunday paper stop showing up at my doorstep on a Sunday morning.
I work in the newspaper industry and there is a lot of wild speculation about whether or not the "paper" is dying.
Newspapers record history in a tangible form. The type that you can clip out and put in a photo album. Printing out a story on a PC is just not the same and never will be. As long as any newspaper remembers its local readers it will stay alive.
I live out in the middle of nowhere and the largest newspaper (over 100,000 circ) just stopped delivering to us because of the gas crunch. We won't miss it, it never had anything about us in it, anyway. One can get the national news anywhere. But the little local is thriving becuase it's jam packed full of local sports news, local feature stories and local columnist talent. The big ones may fall, but the smaller ones will continue on. And as long as people can cram a paperback into a back pocket or purse, readers will continue reading. But I have to admit, I have wondered the same thing.
Newspapers record history in a tangible form. The type that you can clip out and put in a photo album. Printing out a story on a PC is just not the same and never will be. As long as any newspaper remembers its local readers it will stay alive.
I live out in the middle of nowhere and the largest newspaper (over 100,000 circ) just stopped delivering to us because of the gas crunch. We won't miss it, it never had anything about us in it, anyway. One can get the national news anywhere. But the little local is thriving becuase it's jam packed full of local sports news, local feature stories and local columnist talent. The big ones may fall, but the smaller ones will continue on. And as long as people can cram a paperback into a back pocket or purse, readers will continue reading. But I have to admit, I have wondered the same thing.
We've been telling stories to each other for about as long as we've been making noises in our throats. We'll be telling stories to each other until the heat death of the universe.
As for the medium changing...well, there are worse things. To me, anyway. The other night, I was thinking "if they invented Star Trek holodecks now, and I had to tell interactive 3D fully realized stories...could I do it?" And I realized yes, I could, and I'd enjoy the hell out of it.
Writers are terrified, absolutely petrified, of a million different little things all for the same reason: "What if it makes me stop writing? What if what I'm doing is no good anymore?" I was terrified of marriage, moving, changing jobs, and having a kid all for that very reason (and a couple of others.)
Mostly, we keep on writing. S'what we do.
And there will be people who keep on reading. The reading world is hardly dead. Unlike the mindless yammer of the movie/TV/music world that has shows like the ****ing Entertainment Tonight devoted to it, writing and books just go quietly on. And that's as it should be.
As for the medium changing...well, there are worse things. To me, anyway. The other night, I was thinking "if they invented Star Trek holodecks now, and I had to tell interactive 3D fully realized stories...could I do it?" And I realized yes, I could, and I'd enjoy the hell out of it.
Writers are terrified, absolutely petrified, of a million different little things all for the same reason: "What if it makes me stop writing? What if what I'm doing is no good anymore?" I was terrified of marriage, moving, changing jobs, and having a kid all for that very reason (and a couple of others.)
Mostly, we keep on writing. S'what we do.
And there will be people who keep on reading. The reading world is hardly dead. Unlike the mindless yammer of the movie/TV/music world that has shows like the ****ing Entertainment Tonight devoted to it, writing and books just go quietly on. And that's as it should be.
Yes, it was. And very Pee Dee-like to be gone for weeks on end then just drop in and spout some wisdom and disappear.
I wish I could be that mysterious.
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I could see other forms of writing morphing into online stuff (newspapers, etc), but it will be a long time if ever that they stop printing traditional books. Schools need em, bored readers need them... it's just not something I see happening any time soon.
Besides, you can't read online books if your power goes out or your computer crashes, or if you're travelling without wireless access. Also, paper lasts longer than data on a harddrive. Millenia old papyrus, anyone?
Besides, you can't read online books if your power goes out or your computer crashes, or if you're travelling without wireless access. Also, paper lasts longer than data on a harddrive. Millenia old papyrus, anyone?
Some of my local paper can be read here, but you still have to buy the print version to read everything:
http://pickensprogress.com
PRINTING, as on paper, may well be eventually supplanted or replaced by websites and e-books, but I strongly believe that WRITING and READING won't go out of style. And the last I heard, the sale of new books is as high as ever, partly as the result of the big-box chain bookstores that have proliferated in the last three decades or so.
If no one has time to read, then why the heck are people buying two billion books per year?
Good for you, sneezing into your elbow is the accepted norm these days. Don't wanna sneeze into your hands and spread germs anymore.
As for writing media changing - I'm sure it will. I'm sure eventually people will stop printing on paper, the digital age will surpass the bookstores and everything will be different than it is today.
I don't think that'll happen quickly - just a slow morphing over the years as it already is. And I don't believe that will end any writing - only alter the medium. If paper-printed books go away, that means we're all writing electronically. We're still writing.
If they invent a holodeck, we're still writing. If they switch to cave walls and chalk, we're still writing.
Things change, but they always stay the same.
If we stop writing things down (which will not happen) then I will stand on a street corner and tell stories to the world as it passes by.
There are worse things to spend your time doing.
There are worse things to spend your time doing.
Damn right I do. Alec Baldwin's got nothin' on me.
(I was just listening to the old radio dramas yesterday. That's some goodness right there.)
(I was just listening to the old radio dramas yesterday. That's some goodness right there.)
Writing will always be around. The styles will change with the times, that's a given. But there will always be writers and there will always be stories.
I don't want to live in a world without books. With my luck, I'll end up in a sad scenerio like that Twilight Zone with Burgess Meredith.
I don't want to live in a world without books. With my luck, I'll end up in a sad scenerio like that Twilight Zone with Burgess Meredith.
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I think this is a pretty good analysis. Around here, we have three major newspapers competing for our attention - the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Hartford Courant (American's oldest continuously printed newspaper, as the masthead says). Naturally, the Courant is the paper of choice for most.
But what's even more interesting to me is that even though the dailies are having a tough time, there are a bunch of niche weeklies that are still doing just fine. Following the example of the Village Voice, they've opted for less frequent, but much deeper, coverage of local issues, a peppering of national stuff, and a whole host of lifestyle information. In a place like Hartford, where there isn't nearly as much information online, they're the only game in town.
If they don't screw it up somehow (which is a really big "if" in the media business), they should be able to hang on for quite a while.
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