"It is comparatively easy to become a writer; staying a writer, resisting formulaic work, generating one's own creativity - that's a much tougher matter"
About this Quote
Aldiss is puncturing the romantic myth that the hard part is getting in the door. Becoming a writer can be as simple as publishing a first story, landing an agent, or finishing a draft; the machinery of “arrival” is finite. “Staying a writer” is where the real attrition happens, because it’s less about talent than endurance under pressure: deadlines, rent, reviews, trends, and the quiet seduction of doing what worked last time.
The sharpest barb here is “resisting formulaic work.” Aldiss isn’t only warning against hackery; he’s describing a market logic that rewards repetition. Genres, especially the ones he helped shape and challenge in postwar British science fiction, come with templates that can pay the bills and flatter the ego. The danger is that competence becomes a cage: you learn how to deliver reliable pleasures, then realize reliability is the enemy of surprise. “Generating one’s own creativity” lands as both a paradox and a dare. Creativity isn’t a reservoir you tap; it’s something you have to manufacture repeatedly, often when you’re tired, scared, or uninspired.
Context matters: Aldiss worked through decades when SF professionalized, commercialized, and hardened into brands, while the New Wave tried to blow those brands up from within. His line reads like hard-earned advice from someone who watched peers get trapped by their own signatures. The intent is disciplinary, almost moral: the writer’s job isn’t self-expression once, but self-renewal indefinitely, especially when the world keeps offering you the easier, more profitable version of yourself.
The sharpest barb here is “resisting formulaic work.” Aldiss isn’t only warning against hackery; he’s describing a market logic that rewards repetition. Genres, especially the ones he helped shape and challenge in postwar British science fiction, come with templates that can pay the bills and flatter the ego. The danger is that competence becomes a cage: you learn how to deliver reliable pleasures, then realize reliability is the enemy of surprise. “Generating one’s own creativity” lands as both a paradox and a dare. Creativity isn’t a reservoir you tap; it’s something you have to manufacture repeatedly, often when you’re tired, scared, or uninspired.
Context matters: Aldiss worked through decades when SF professionalized, commercialized, and hardened into brands, while the New Wave tried to blow those brands up from within. His line reads like hard-earned advice from someone who watched peers get trapped by their own signatures. The intent is disciplinary, almost moral: the writer’s job isn’t self-expression once, but self-renewal indefinitely, especially when the world keeps offering you the easier, more profitable version of yourself.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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