I’m a big fan of the pulp fiction writers from the early 1900s. Their work ethic and attitude towards writing was outstanding.

At that time there was no such thing as author advances, or even treating writing as some kind of high form of art. It was work.

These writers would sit down for eight hours a day, typing story after story, sending them off and getting paid per word if they were accepted. Many of these stories didn’t last beyond the paper they were printed on.

Sometimes a few of the better ones got reprinted. Whatever happened though, they just kept going.

They didn’t treat any particular story with some great thought that this was going to be the greatest piece of art on the planet. They put their egos aside and worked their butts off. In other words, they did what today’s writers fail to do.

I try every day to mimic their attitude a bit more. Keeping in mind, however, it was a different time period. The circumstances under which they were writing were very different and the world they were writing in was also a different place.

But I often wonder if we were to bring those pulp fiction writer writers to today, with all the tools at our disposal, what could they accomplish?

First of all, they were typing on manual typewriters and editing was a big big pain. It was in their benefit to get it right the first time, or with as few errors as possible per page. There was no spell check, grammar check or any on-the-fly editing function. They were also bound to wherever their typewriter was.

Imagine them with the tools we have today.

We have a device that fits in our pocket that can literally transcribe every word you say. We also have larger devices that are paper thin with detachable keyboards you can use anywhere to get some work done. Also, these devices make editing work ridiculously simple.

You can also use these same devices to publish your work to the entire world for free and put that work into distribution systems to get you paid.

I’m pretty sure if you brought those writers to today with the tools that we have, they would put today’s writer to shame.

This is where my contention lies (myself included). We’ve forgotten the work habits of the writers of yesterday, except for a niche few that some academics feel constitute “real” authors of “proper” literature. We haven’t built upon what they did.

Writers are caught up in the business and marketing aspect of publishing and forgot that writing was a simple labor… a labor of love… but a simple labor. You sit down, write, produce and go on to the next story, hoping to get better each time.

Athletes, on the other hand, have learned from their predecessors. They have amazing tools, knowledge, information and equipment at their disposal that the athletes of yesterday would gush over. The difference is they now know that every little thing they can learn about themselves and their performance, and about their previous performances, to better themselves is going to give them an advantage over the playing field.

In many ways, I wish the writers of today could be like the athletes of today and learn from our predecessors, rather than believe we’ve transcended them.