Health, Money or Living?
Bear Flats west of the Alaska Highway on the road to Hudson's Hope sometime in the 1990s. No, it has nothing to do with the question and answer just a picture of great country.
Are you writing for your Health, the Money or to make a living?
Question #2.
Was there ever a moment when you seriously considered giving
up writing? If so, what kept you going?
There have been many of those moments, particularly when I
was still working a “day job.” “I just
don’t have time right now,” which may have been true but without the catharses
(or whatever else you want to call it) of creating, your personality changes,
sometimes becoming someone you don’t like.
Sorry, you have to
haul that person around with you, so you better do something about your
attitude.
Better write a story, that’ll help.
Perhaps I wrote something, went back to look at it a week
later and decided it was trash and I have no business being involved in writing.
Perhaps, but what kind of a mood was I in when I wrote that? Perhaps I
shouldn’t have been writing at that time.
There have also been instances when I was despondent because
something I wrote wasn’t being accepted as I thought it should be and, again
because I had another source of income at the time, I was writing very little.
More than one instance of my return to writing happened because I bought a
novel, or read something written by an “oft mentioned” writer that I found to
be depressing, lacking entertainment value or not up to their usual standards.
“Hell, if he can sell that crap, I have no business being
worried about anything I’ve written, whether it sells or not.”
In those instances, it all goes back to what I wrote in my
answer to Question #1; It sold because it was well marketed and distributed,
not because it was good work.
Which has led me to another conclusion:
The quality of a piece of writing has very little to do
with its initial sale and has everything to do with its long-term life.
Which is also connected to, …..
Much of what is created today, both through AI and real
writers, is for fast consumption and quick turnover and will be meaningless
drivel in two weeks or two years.
If it, by some accident, ever has any meaning.
That’s because publishing, as with most other industries,
forces producers or writers to create something that sells. Is it entertaining?
Does it demonstrate personal development or support the creation of empathy?
Does it teach something?
All of those things will be acceptable two years from now.
But MOST of the “industry” doesn’t care about any of that. They want to know
one thing.
Will it sell RIGHT NOW?
Take a look at story excerpts and pictures from the past at
https://www.youtube.com/@davemcgowan6231
Or the many platforms where can be found digital /
print and audible versions
Comments
Post a Comment