Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster • Hacker News Board

Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster

#21

Post by rolltiide » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:35 PM UTC

This is the same with other creative works.

Visual artists work that gains value is highly correlated with their network to begin with.

Right school, right galleries, never ever being seen in a lesser gallery. It makes me sad when an artist who wants to monetize is celebrating the mere fact of being on display as validation, when that very act is undermining the value of their work forever. Is the alternative of being in a prestigious gallery achievable for them? Probably not, and they should consider resigning to that reality if their time is valuable.

I think this is not known because when I listen to many talented and aspiring artists the things they value are so at odds with the things that would make them valuable. Things like "I never had formal education" being a bragging point to an aspiring artist not being aware thats not a bragging point to the people that the artist wants to assign value to their work.

Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster

#22

Post by sleazy_b » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:38 PM UTC

bobthecowboy wrote: post #10

sleazy_b wrote: post #8

I moderate a small writing subresdit and discord. I can't speak to how useful it is for other participants but for me it's been tremendously helpful in keeping my writing front of mind, not to mention the writing sprints that take place there represent a significant amount of my output. Interacting with other writers has been the best way to improve my own writing as well as develop new ideas and inspiration.

What's the subreddit?

r/litfiction The subreddit is pretty inactive but the Discord is a great place, if a little quiet: https://discord.gg/JuGRMYP

Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster

#23

Post by rb808 » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 6:49 PM UTC

pjmorris wrote: post #9

In 'Working' [0], Robert Caro spends pages on how much being able to join a community of writers meant to him when producing 'The Power Broker.' The New York Public Library set aside a room as a workspace explicitly to house writers working on books. A passage from 'Working': And these writers provided more for me than merely the glow of their names. In my memory, no one spoke to me for the first few days I was in th…

I'm curious how spaces like this are run. Who identifies the need, finds budget or space, then operates. Is it invite only or kind of underground word of mouth?

Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster

#24

Post by HaloZero » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 7:50 PM UTC

Doesn't the data seem to reflect the clustering effect for writers in London has waned. As you approach the 21st century that clustering effect goes toward the population line.

Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster

#25

Post by jetgirl » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 7:53 PM UTC

sleazy_b wrote: post #8

I moderate a small writing subresdit and discord. I can't speak to how useful it is for other participants but for me it's been tremendously helpful in keeping my writing front of mind, not to mention the writing sprints that take place there represent a significant amount of my output. Interacting with other writers has been the best way to improve my own writing as well as develop new ideas and inspiration.

It's more than helpful to the other participants. :D

Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster

#26

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 8:01 PM UTC

rolltiide wrote: post #21

This is the same with other creative works. Visual artists work that gains value is highly correlated with their network to begin with. Right school, right galleries, never ever being seen in a lesser gallery. It makes me sad when an artist who wants to monetize is celebrating the mere fact of being on display as validation, when that very act is undermining the value of their work forever. Is the alternative of bein…

[deleted]

Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster

#27

Post by aggronn » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 8:31 PM UTC

This isn't a unique characteristic of writers, or creatives for that matter. This is a well studied phenomena, especially in Urban Economics, called Agglomeration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_agglomeration

The HN audience should be pretty familiar with this already considering how much we talk about startups and labor markets--proximity breeds productivity. Startups breed more startups, software jobs breed software jobs.

But it extends beyond that even. This is, in part, why similar stores cluster. The "cost" of doing business goes down when you're near other people who are doing the same business, for a variety of reasons. In writing, "cost" is feedback and gathering inspiration. Its hardly different at all.

Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster

#28

Post by westoncb » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 9:37 PM UTC

pjmorris wrote: post #9

In 'Working' [0], Robert Caro spends pages on how much being able to join a community of writers meant to him when producing 'The Power Broker.' The New York Public Library set aside a room as a workspace explicitly to house writers working on books. A passage from 'Working': And these writers provided more for me than merely the glow of their names. In my memory, no one spoke to me for the first few days I was in th…

Hey, that makes me feel a bit better about some of my software projects too! ;)

Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster

#29

Post by robocat » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 10:16 PM UTC

rb808 wrote: post #23

pjmorris wrote: post #9

In 'Working' [0], Robert Caro spends pages on how much being able to join a community of writers meant to him when producing 'The Power Broker.' The New York Public Library set aside a room as a workspace explicitly to house writers working on books. A passage from 'Working': And these writers provided more for me than merely the glow of their names. In my memory, no one spoke to me for the first few days I was in th…

I'm curious how spaces like this are run. Who identifies the need, finds budget or space, then operates. Is it invite only or kind of underground word of mouth?

Libraries are a bastion of socialists. And the words librarian and libertarian are almost homophones. However the totalitarian are literally taking over.

Re: Writers Are More Prolific When They Cluster

#30

Post by theoh » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 10:20 PM UTC

rb808 wrote: post #23

pjmorris wrote: post #9

In 'Working' [0], Robert Caro spends pages on how much being able to join a community of writers meant to him when producing 'The Power Broker.' The New York Public Library set aside a room as a workspace explicitly to house writers working on books. A passage from 'Working': And these writers provided more for me than merely the glow of their names. In my memory, no one spoke to me for the first few days I was in th…

I'm curious how spaces like this are run. Who identifies the need, finds budget or space, then operates. Is it invite only or kind of underground word of mouth?

That particular example is discussed here: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/02/nyregion/authors-seek-mus...

Apparently one had to have a publishing contract to be admitted. I'm not sure how elitist that actually worked out to be.

There are also membership-funded places like http://www.writersroom.org/

I know more about how this works in the arts, where the relevant term is "residency". Access to exclusive residencies is usually allocated on the basis of previous career success, and they are usually funded by endowments of some kind. It's an example of institutional support for artists, and the top residencies are extremely elitist. There are lots of humble ones too, though.