{"id":1658,"date":"2011-12-10T08:40:03","date_gmt":"2011-12-10T16:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=1658"},"modified":"2011-12-10T08:40:03","modified_gmt":"2011-12-10T16:40:03","slug":"chris-orcutts-barbaric-yawp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/chris-orcutts-barbaric-yawp\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Orcutt\u2019s Barbaric Yawp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI sound my bar\u00adbar\u00adic yawp over the roofs of the world.\u201d\u2014Walt Whit\u00adman, <\/em>Leaves of Grass<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Pho\u00adto by Jen Cray<\/p><\/div>\n

THE OTHER DAY, I wrote that I was going to \u201ctake it easy\u201d when it came to self-pro\u00admo\u00adtion, but you know what? Screw that.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to take it easy. I don\u2019t want to be mod\u00adest, hum\u00adble, or<\/em> self-dep\u00adre\u00adcat\u00ading. I\u2019ve done that all my life, and I\u2019m sick of it. I was raised by hon\u00adest and hard\u00adwork\u00ading Mainers\u2014parents and<\/em> grandparents\u2014who imbued in me the sense that a per\u00adson shouldn\u2019t brag or go on about him\u00adself. Pro\u00admot\u00ading your\u00adself, they sug\u00adgest\u00aded, was unseem\u00adly.<\/p>\n

But as a 20-year pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal writer of jour\u00adnal\u00adism, video scripts, mag\u00ada\u00adzine arti\u00adcles, tech\u00adni\u00adcal man\u00adu\u00adals, speech\u00ades and a ton of unpub\u00adlished (and some pub\u00adlished) fic\u00adtion, I\u2019ve learned a few things, and one of the things I\u2019ve learned is that there are a lot of less\u00ader writ\u00aders out there doing very well for them\u00adselves, and do you know why?<\/p>\n

A recent news\u00adpa\u00adper arti\u00adcle by Kate Gold\u00adsmith of the N. Dutchess News about me and \u201cA Real Piece of Work.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

That\u2019s right\u2014because they pro\u00admot\u00aded them\u00adselves. Because they talked about their work at every turn and made no apolo\u00adgies. Because they didn\u2019t wait around for out\u00adside approval of their work or of their sta\u00adtus as writ\u00aders. Because they declared them\u00adselves<\/em> writ\u00aders and forced the world to con\u00adsid\u00ader them as such.<\/p>\n

As a kid, I moved too many times; an aver\u00adage of once a year until I was 18. Con\u00adse\u00adquent\u00adly, wher\u00adev\u00ader I was liv\u00ading, I didn\u2019t want to make waves. I just want\u00aded to get along. Even in the town where I grad\u00adu\u00adat\u00aded from high school, although I threw some leg\u00adendary par\u00adties there, I was hard\u00adly known as Mr. Pop\u00adu\u00adlar or Mr. Self-Pro\u00admot\u00ader<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The sad fact of it is, I\u2019ve spent the last 20 years play\u00ading down myself and my accom\u00adplish\u00adments, and I don\u2019t want to do it any\u00admore.<\/p>\n

Recent\u00adly the pain of con\u00adtin\u00adu\u00adous rejec\u00adtion of my work by main\u00adstream pub\u00adli\u00adca\u00adtions brought me pre\u00adcip\u00adi\u00adtous\u00adly close to tak\u00ading my own life. Beyond that, I found myself con\u00adsis\u00adtent\u00adly think\u00ading that I wouldn\u2019t mind if I were hit by a bus or struck by a falling tree limb. Ulti\u00admate\u00adly I want\u00aded to die, but I didn\u2019t want to take respon\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty for the act.<\/p>\n

Since then, I\u2019ve got\u00adten on some new med\u00adica\u00adtions that are work\u00ading won\u00adders. Say what you will about the phar\u00adma\u00adceu\u00adti\u00adcal indus\u00adtry, but as a guy with a poten\u00adtial\u00adly par\u00ada\u00adlyz\u00ading men\u00adtal ill\u00adness, I can declare with author\u00adi\u00adty that some of what they pro\u00adduce actu\u00adal\u00adly works<\/em> and is doing some good in the world.<\/p>\n

In my case, they\u2019ve cleared up my think\u00ading, made me 5x more pro\u00adduc\u00adtive, and inspired me to speak up for myself and my work\u2014with confidence\u2014for the first time in my life.<\/p>\n

So allow me, if you will, to \u201csound my bar\u00adbar\u00adic yawp[s] over the roofs of the world,\u201d to \u201ccel\u00ade\u00adbrate myself,\u201d as Walt Whit\u00adman also put it\u2014to share some of my accom\u00adplish\u00adments and to declare myself to the uni\u00adverse as a unique cre\u00adation, nev\u00ader before seen or to be seen again when I shuf\u00adfle off this mor\u00adtal coil:<\/p>\n

I am a very good writer, and I believe I have the capac\u00adi\u00adty to become a great one. My idols, the writ\u00aders to whose lev\u00adel I aspire, are the best of the best: Chekhov, Tol\u00adstoy, Fitzger\u00adald, Hem\u00ading\u00adway, White, Cain, Chan\u00addler, Cheev\u00ader, Carv\u00ader, Nabokov, Keil\u00adlor and Boyle.<\/p>\n

I have writ\u00adten mil\u00adlions<\/em> of words. Mil\u00adlions. First as a phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy stu\u00addent, then as a news\u00adpa\u00adper reporter and free\u00adlance writer. Lat\u00ader as a tech\u00adni\u00adcal writer and speech\u00adwriter. Recent\u00adly as a play\u00adwright. And for\u00adev\u00ader as a sto\u00adry\u00adteller. In pub\u00adlished and unpub\u00adlished nov\u00adels and sto\u00adries, not to men\u00adtion 20 years of jour\u00adnal writ\u00ading, I con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive\u00adly esti\u00admate I\u2019ve writ\u00adten 5 mil\u00adlion words.<\/p>\n

In the past 18 months, I have writ\u00adten 25 sto\u00adries and at least a dozen humor\u00adous sketch\u00ades, all of which have been reject\u00aded (so far) by main\u00adstream pub\u00adli\u00adca\u00adtions. Of these works, by my excru\u00adci\u00adat\u00ading\u00adly high stan\u00addards I would say a dozen are very good and 6\u20138 are great pieces of work. I\u2019m not giv\u00ading up on any of them, but espe\u00adcial\u00adly not the great ones. I\u2019m con\u00adfi\u00addent that some edi\u00adtor out there is going to \u201cget\u201d them and want to pub\u00adlish the work. I\u2019m con\u00adfi\u00addent that before I die I will write one sol\u00adid col\u00adlec\u00adtion of short sto\u00adries, and I\u2019m also con\u00adfi\u00addent that if I con\u00adtin\u00adue to write my very best, I might, just might, pen one per\u00adfect short story\u2014one \u201cThe Lady with the Dog<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>

You have to admit, you admire my brazen\u00adness and con\u00adsis\u00adten\u00adcy.<\/p><\/div>\n

I have writ\u00adten 2 excep\u00adtion\u00adal mystery\/PI nov\u00adels\u2014A Real Piece of Work <\/em>and The Rich Are Dif\u00adfer\u00adent<\/em>\u2014that I believe have the poten\u00adtial to become mod\u00adern clas\u00adsics in the genre. They are as well-writ\u00adten and well-told sto\u00adries as any being pub\u00adlished by main\u00adstream pub\u00adlish\u00aders today. And I have drafts and out\u00adlines of 4 more. One book, you got dick; three, four, five books, you got your\u00adself a series<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I am not a writer who can be pigeon\u00adholed, even if, for years, I kept try\u00ading to do it to myself. I can do it all\u2014and well\u2014and I refuse to make apolo\u00adgies for it any\u00admore.<\/p>\n

I am proud that I have learned to write almost entire\u00adly on my own\u2014by writ\u00ading dai\u00adly and read\u00ading deeply about the sub\u00adject.<\/p>\n

I write every day, and have writ\u00adten every day\u2014at least a page\u2014for 20 years. It\u2019s how I process the world. The world doesn\u2019t make sense to me until I write it down. Writ\u00ading gives me clar\u00adi\u00adty, and I try to give back to the world some of the clar\u00adi\u00adty it gives me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Screw<\/em><\/strong> tak\u00ading it easy.<\/p>\n

I sound my bar\u00adbar\u00adic yawp over the roofs of the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI sound my bar\u00adbar\u00adic yawp over the roofs of the world.\u201d\u2014Walt Whit\u00adman, Leaves of Grass THE OTHER DAY, I wrote that I was going to \u201ctake it\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,18,19,20,7,24,25,11,12,27,13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-real-piece-of-work","category-dramaticwriting","category-fiction","category-journalism","category-personal","category-speechwriting","category-technical","category-dakota-stevens-mysteries-series","category-the-rich-are-different","category-webcontent","category-writers","category-writingexperiences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}