Here we go again. Someone showed up on Reddit, demanding, not asking but demanding help for their book. Well, the book they want to write since they haven’t actually put “pen to paper” to be anachronistic. They “want to write” but they haven’t actually done anything, but they sure want everyone else to help them to be successful, in the off-chance that someday, they actually accomplish something.

This is not going to go well.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like helping people, but if I’m going to help, I expect you to put your own time, effort and money into your own success. It’s not something that you can expect others to do in your stead and that’s insanely common these days.

I, and a lot of others, gave him the same advice we always do. Write the damn book first. Lots of people who “want to write” don’t end up finishing anything. There’s no sense in focusing on selling a book that doesn’t exist. He didn’t like that much and made a bunch of excuses, but frankly, I’m sick and tired of the endless array of excuses that we get. Write the damn book. Chances are, even if you finish it, it’ll be crap and you should hide it away from the light of day. “I will” doesn’t mean anything. “I’m done” does. Come back then, you’re jumping the gun before that.

This is so absurdly common today that I’m getting sick of answering it. People will ask questions, writing-related or not, that can easily be answered with a 10-second Google search. Someone, a couple of days ago, asked “what snakes are illegal to own in Connecticut”. I typed exactly that into Google and the very first result was the answer. Why haven’t you even made an attempt? Why are so many people so lazy these days? Try! It’s not that hard! But, getting back to writing, if you can’t even do something simple for yourself, how in the hell do you think you’re going to manage to produce a readable, saleable book? Are you out of your mind?

Sadly, the answer is often yes.

I have no idea why people are so lazy today but they are. I don’t want to get into the political reasons, that’s something for the other blog, but people today simply expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter and they think they deserve success, just because they “tried”. Mostly, their efforts are a mere shadow of what they need to do, but hard work seems to be antithetical to the “gimme gimme gimme” mindset that is so prevalent.

It’s hard to imagine a field that’s less likely to bend to the “I deserve it!” crowd than writing. There is no deserve. There is only earn. Put your butt in a seat and type until you’ve come up with something that will sell. You’re not getting anywhere until you do.

I honestly weep for the future reading public of the world because they’re not going to be getting a lot of quality books to read.