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You can tell a lot about a writer from the way he or she insults a fellow writer.
What does he object to? What does she value? What are their beliefs about style and content?
There it all is in a quick little put-down!
And here in this infographic from AussieWriter.com are some of the most famous writers’ insults hurled at one writer by another:
What are your favorite writerly insults? Let us know in the comments below.
About Chris Robley
Chris Robley has written 502 posts in this blog.
Chris Robley is an award-winning poet, songwriter, performer, and music producer who now lives in Portland, Maine after more than a decade in Portland, Oregon. His music has been praised by NPR, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, and others. Skyscraper Magazine said he is “one of the best short-story musicians to come along in quite some time.” Robley’s poetry has been published or is forthcoming in POETRY, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, Beloit Poetry Journal, RHINO, Magma Poetry, and more. He is the 2013 winner of Boulevard's Poetry Prize for Emerging Writers and the 2014 recipient of a Maine Literary Award in the category of "Short Works Poetry."
Fellow writers’ insults aside, I believe good writing is an honest report from the heart. If your heart is telling you a story, you know it. If it uses multisyllabic words to make a point, then there is a need for you to convey that notion in the exact rhythm in which you’ve received it. If pedestrian words flow, there is nothing wrong with them. What matters is that what you write, you feel. And what you feel, you write.
When you feel nothing, write nothing. And when that dry spell lifts, be ready to capture every bit of the flow that comes to replenish the well.