Writing
Eric San Juan
December 8, 2012
The question seems ridiculous, doesn’t it? If you write, you’re a writer … right? Isn’t that how it works? But the fact is, whether they admit it or not, every writer has grappled with a variation of this question, subtle or otherwise. After all, we don’t simply want to write, we want to be read. We want to be experienced. We want to be RECOGNIZED … … as a writer. And there’s the crux. What separates “a writer” from someone else? When can Joe say it when Bob can’t? The basic answer is that if you write you’re a writer. If the statement isn’t presented in the context of “what do you do for a living” then that’s probably fine. You’re a writer if you…
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Eric San Juan
December 1, 2012
Wait, what? One of my huge problems is attention span. Always has been. Always will be. Just ask the people who had the unfortunate job of being my teacher back in Lakehurst. What this means is that even when neck-deep in a major project or three, my mind is on what’s next rather than what is right in front of me. This is true even right now. It’s not like I’m not busy. I’m currently working on a follow-up to A Year of Hitchcock with Jim McDevitt, the third installment of the Pitched! anthology series with a number of fantastic artists, a series on living through Hurricane Sandy, and whatever odds and ends come my way. And yet still my mind is on what’s next….
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Eric San Juan
October 26, 2012
I never saw my hometown ’till I stayed away too long. –“San Diego Serenade,” Tom Waits This sort of sums up Lakehurst: Barrens, Blimps & Barons, a book I wrote and self-published about the tiny Pine Barrens town I spent years trying to leave. That’s right. For most of my teen years, I wanted to get the hell out of that place. So if I spent years trying to leave the town — and I jumped ship as soon as I could, fleeing at the age of 19 — why would I spend the time to write and publish a book about it? Tom Waits nailed it in the above lyric from “San Diego Serenade,” featured on 1974’s The Heart of Saturday Night. There is…
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Eric San Juan
July 24, 2012
Creation is an act of defiance against fear. Whether writer, musician, artist, or other variation on the theme of Creative Person, all of us at one point or another struggle between our insatiable need to create and a nagging demon whispering to us, “You can’t do it. You will never be great.” So when we sit down and put words on the page or send musical notes to the ears of our listeners, we are rebelling against that fear. Where others are intimidated by failure, by the sometimes insurmountable challenge of turning their creative vision into reality, we fight on. Sometimes. Because at other times, that fear can grind us to a halt. We realize that what we’re trying to do borders on insane. Wouldn’t…
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Eric San Juan
July 20, 2012
Writers want to be read. That is why you write. You write to express yourself or to earn a living, yes — for me writing is as much a job as it is a joy — but it begins with a desire to say, “Look at this. These are my words.” That’s why it’s very easy for aspiring writers to get suckered into doing free work they should be getting paid for, or worse yet, for established writers to get tricked into doing the same. In the world of freelance writing especially, there are plenty of people out there ready and willing to prey on your eagerness, naivety, or desperation to get some writing work. Here’s one trick I see a lot when prowling freelance…
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