I am sorry to tell you that the reason I used that particular phrase is that I was quoting. From sartorias, yesterday, "as some of my own relatives have said, 'If YOU can do it, any monkey with a typewriter can!' " and later int he comment thread, "To be precise, the original quote was, 'Really? How much did you have to pay to get them to read that crap?' "
I don't get it either. It's not that hard to make up a plot, though harder to make up a good one. And it's not hard at all to put some words on a page - see, I just did! But you would think that it would take very little imagination to realize the size of the job involved in (physically) putting a *whole book's worth* of words on the page, not to mention all the revision. And more important, the mental side: telling that plot so it comes alive, building a world a reader can step into, making characters real, and weaving together threads of plot and subplot. I *know* I can't do all that (not without a hell of a lot of learning at the least, but I don't think the root of the matter is really in me), and it only took me about a minute of thinking to realize that.
no subject
I don't get it either. It's not that hard to make up a plot, though harder to make up a good one. And it's not hard at all to put some words on a page - see, I just did! But you would think that it would take very little imagination to realize the size of the job involved in (physically) putting a *whole book's worth* of words on the page, not to mention all the revision. And more important, the mental side: telling that plot so it comes alive, building a world a reader can step into, making characters real, and weaving together threads of plot and subplot. I *know* I can't do all that (not without a hell of a lot of learning at the least, but I don't think the root of the matter is really in me), and it only took me about a minute of thinking to realize that.