Pretentiousness Rant

I hate pretentiousness in literature.

It seems anymore as though people have to add so much vocabulary into a piece of writing that you have to use a dictionary to read along, and they explore concepts that the common person will not easily understand. I'm not against either of these, I think they both have their uses. But don't do them both at the same time, for pete's sake. You have to do one or the other, or people won't get it.

I can already hear noses turning up and writers saying, "Well, then people just don't get it." You don't get it, you snobbish people with pencils up your asses. You are not writing for yourself. If that was true, then you wouldn't be attempting to get published. You are writing for an audience. You have an obligation to at least attempt to please people. It's part of your job. If you claim that your book isn't for most people, then why get so offended whenever they don't like it? It makes no sense at all.

I just wish people would stop thinking they have to use a multi-syllable adjective every other word and have all their works get into super-deep philosophical stuff that even the Dali Lama might get lost in. Simple sentences are your friends, and it's okay to just write about how happy you are that your girlfriend kissed you. Seriously. You aren't Cormac McCarthy, you're Struggling McGenericWriter, and no amount of imitation is going to change that. Read classics and find your own style. That's what writing is all about.