I agree with most of this. People used to entertain themselves more. But there are still local performers doing music, theater, poetry, etc. for the love of performing. With no aim of becoming famous. I am one of them. We are just harder to find. Open mics are still a thing also (at least they were before COVID.)
I would also add that it was printing (and novels) that actually killed the storyteller role in the community. Instead of people telling stories to their local neighbors, we transitioned to people writing books for the masses. Except, that limited the printed "storytellers" to those the publishers, newspapers, and journals deemed worthy.
The internet has allowed anyone to be a storyteller again. And while the social aspect is different, I think it is a good thing.
As a counter-argument, I'd point out that there have been tons of folks wanting to be a writer even before the Age of Social Media... internet (for good or bad) has just made the process so much easier.
That said, the *intent* for wanting to be a writer has likely evolved and I agree that, today, there are likely many who seek that form of affirmation of which you speak. Platforms such as Wattpad, Royal Road, or even Substack make it an attainable goal.
And now I'll go further than you by mentioning what the title of your post made me think of right off the bat... *literally* performing the art of novel writing. Yes, yes, it's a thing. Here are two extreme examples of this:
1) Michael Levin wrote a novel in 24 hours, sitting in a bookstore. He talks a little bit about it in this article (though it's not its main focus):
2) The second case that comes to mind was a self-published author (can't remember his name) who wrote a novel in 24 hours in a hotel room and recorded the process live on YouTube. This happened earlier this year, though I can't find the video for this anymore... I'm guessing he might have taken it down. I'd watched bits of it while it was happening, but it wasn't very appealing, as you can imagine LMAO.
The way he'd set it up, he had his Scrivener manuscript on the screen with a thumbnail on the side showing his face, and underneath that a counter counting down the remaining time. There was also a chat window where he could see what people were saying and he'd sometimes respond live while he wrote. I remember Chris Fox showing up in the chat at one point haha.
And then... there's this third case I just found now... it's a little bit different, since you have here 8 writers sharing the work, but it's still an interesting variant on 'performing arts':
Interesting angle . . . especially since you are going to join the novelists' ranks! I wonder if part of the popularity of venues like substack, etc., where you can publish a chapter a week, is that it mimics the serialized-novel format of the nineteenth century. People like Dickens, Thackeray, and Dostoevsky would write their novels a few chapters at a time, which would be published bit by bit in magazines and newspapers. Writers would be up against a deadline every time the new issue of the magazine was about to come out. I don't know why this practice faded away, but I heard that Tom Wolfe followed in when he was writing "The Bonfire of the Vanities" in Rolling Stone.
Interesting post! I'd not really thought about my own writing from a performative angle, but engaging directly with readers is absolutely why I publish this way (and the subsequent feedback loop that helps me keep writing consistently).
One aspect I don't think you touched upon in terms of performative, group storytelling is roleplaying. Whether's it's Dungeons & Dragons (still going strong), Warhammer, DIY stuff, quirky new things like Night of the Hogmen, or the excellent kid-friendly Hero Kids, tabletop roleplaying seems like a direct replacement of those group storytelling sessions, in which everyone taking part gets to perform.
Hi, Mark! Your blog post made me think of Jack Kerouac. He bragged in the 1940s, when he was about 20, that he had already written over a million words. Of course, Truman Capote famously quipped later that what Kerouac was doing was "typing, not writing." Nevertheless, Kerouac found success as a paid writer until his death in 1969.
I think Kerouac was a performance artist, although his performances were alone. He wrote On the Road in about 3 weeks, high on benzedrine, in a bathroom in an apartment. This was after his initial million words. If those million words are considered practice, then his "performance" in the bathroom that yielded On the Road was indeed the product of his practice. And regardless of anybody's opinion of the literary value of OTR, if there is any, it made his career.
I don't think this is what you were referring to exactly in your post, but it is what it made me think of. In my mind, the stamina and constitution of writers, which is important for survival and success, is the direct result of their practice and performance.
Sorry, I don't really have a point here. I just wanted to share this with you since I was excited to read your post. I'm raptly following your journey. I have never considered reading a novel about the topic you describe, but your journey to novelist interests me as a fellow writer. I look forward to reading more from you.
The foundation of loneliness lies in the superficiality of it all. Like you said, the local geographic element is entirely removed, especially now with all the restrictions, though it’s been like this long before COVID. It’s sad, really. And everything is exaggerated by the feeling that we ARE being social, even if that means simply scrolling through instagram. Being “social” has never been so easy, yet through the seeming simplicity of it all, it is also so, so difficult. We can have a screen time of 10 h a day and still not respond to a text message until days later. No wonder depression and anxiety rates have never been higher!
I agree with most of this. People used to entertain themselves more. But there are still local performers doing music, theater, poetry, etc. for the love of performing. With no aim of becoming famous. I am one of them. We are just harder to find. Open mics are still a thing also (at least they were before COVID.)
I would also add that it was printing (and novels) that actually killed the storyteller role in the community. Instead of people telling stories to their local neighbors, we transitioned to people writing books for the masses. Except, that limited the printed "storytellers" to those the publishers, newspapers, and journals deemed worthy.
The internet has allowed anyone to be a storyteller again. And while the social aspect is different, I think it is a good thing.
As a counter-argument, I'd point out that there have been tons of folks wanting to be a writer even before the Age of Social Media... internet (for good or bad) has just made the process so much easier.
That said, the *intent* for wanting to be a writer has likely evolved and I agree that, today, there are likely many who seek that form of affirmation of which you speak. Platforms such as Wattpad, Royal Road, or even Substack make it an attainable goal.
And now I'll go further than you by mentioning what the title of your post made me think of right off the bat... *literally* performing the art of novel writing. Yes, yes, it's a thing. Here are two extreme examples of this:
1) Michael Levin wrote a novel in 24 hours, sitting in a bookstore. He talks a little bit about it in this article (though it's not its main focus):
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/if-i-can-write-a-novel-in-a-day-you-can-surely-write-a-book-in-the-next-six-months-heres-how
2) The second case that comes to mind was a self-published author (can't remember his name) who wrote a novel in 24 hours in a hotel room and recorded the process live on YouTube. This happened earlier this year, though I can't find the video for this anymore... I'm guessing he might have taken it down. I'd watched bits of it while it was happening, but it wasn't very appealing, as you can imagine LMAO.
The way he'd set it up, he had his Scrivener manuscript on the screen with a thumbnail on the side showing his face, and underneath that a counter counting down the remaining time. There was also a chat window where he could see what people were saying and he'd sometimes respond live while he wrote. I remember Chris Fox showing up in the chat at one point haha.
And then... there's this third case I just found now... it's a little bit different, since you have here 8 writers sharing the work, but it's still an interesting variant on 'performing arts':
http://www.pmnewton.com/2012/06/how-to-write-book-in-24-hours-aka-how.html
Fascinating stuff.
Oh, and in other news, we now know Mark is a secret admirer of Taylor Swift :D
Interesting angle . . . especially since you are going to join the novelists' ranks! I wonder if part of the popularity of venues like substack, etc., where you can publish a chapter a week, is that it mimics the serialized-novel format of the nineteenth century. People like Dickens, Thackeray, and Dostoevsky would write their novels a few chapters at a time, which would be published bit by bit in magazines and newspapers. Writers would be up against a deadline every time the new issue of the magazine was about to come out. I don't know why this practice faded away, but I heard that Tom Wolfe followed in when he was writing "The Bonfire of the Vanities" in Rolling Stone.
Interesting post! I'd not really thought about my own writing from a performative angle, but engaging directly with readers is absolutely why I publish this way (and the subsequent feedback loop that helps me keep writing consistently).
One aspect I don't think you touched upon in terms of performative, group storytelling is roleplaying. Whether's it's Dungeons & Dragons (still going strong), Warhammer, DIY stuff, quirky new things like Night of the Hogmen, or the excellent kid-friendly Hero Kids, tabletop roleplaying seems like a direct replacement of those group storytelling sessions, in which everyone taking part gets to perform.
Great writeup! I fully support artists having the opportunity to directly engage with audiences.
My aspiration is to catalog the creative writers and give them a portfolio as a showroom alongside the stage.
Hi, Mark! Your blog post made me think of Jack Kerouac. He bragged in the 1940s, when he was about 20, that he had already written over a million words. Of course, Truman Capote famously quipped later that what Kerouac was doing was "typing, not writing." Nevertheless, Kerouac found success as a paid writer until his death in 1969.
I think Kerouac was a performance artist, although his performances were alone. He wrote On the Road in about 3 weeks, high on benzedrine, in a bathroom in an apartment. This was after his initial million words. If those million words are considered practice, then his "performance" in the bathroom that yielded On the Road was indeed the product of his practice. And regardless of anybody's opinion of the literary value of OTR, if there is any, it made his career.
I don't think this is what you were referring to exactly in your post, but it is what it made me think of. In my mind, the stamina and constitution of writers, which is important for survival and success, is the direct result of their practice and performance.
Sorry, I don't really have a point here. I just wanted to share this with you since I was excited to read your post. I'm raptly following your journey. I have never considered reading a novel about the topic you describe, but your journey to novelist interests me as a fellow writer. I look forward to reading more from you.
The foundation of loneliness lies in the superficiality of it all. Like you said, the local geographic element is entirely removed, especially now with all the restrictions, though it’s been like this long before COVID. It’s sad, really. And everything is exaggerated by the feeling that we ARE being social, even if that means simply scrolling through instagram. Being “social” has never been so easy, yet through the seeming simplicity of it all, it is also so, so difficult. We can have a screen time of 10 h a day and still not respond to a text message until days later. No wonder depression and anxiety rates have never been higher!