Don't do it.
Don't be a writer.
It's not original. Everyone's at it.
It's not fulfilling. Most of what you do will be rubbish.
It's not satisfying. You'll never get published, and even if you do you won't sell, and even if you do, you'll get marketed wrongly, and even if you're not you'll have to prostitute your very soul to make people like you, and even if you don't you'll never know what the future holds or whether they'll still like you ten minutes later.
Don't do it.
But if you do do it, break all the rules. ALL OF THEM.
This ever-so-slightly-drunken rant was inspired by Tania from TaniaWrites, who in turn was inspired by Anis Shivani, who writes about it all very eloquently here.
I've said what I'm about to say a few times now, but I think that as writers we are often too caught up with Successful, Popular, Famous.
Hmm. Not just writers...
But anyway. Why do we care how many people read our books? 100 people is a LOT of people, but not in the world of publishing. If you did something good and that many people praised you for it, or paid attention to it, wouldn't you be pleased? If you were responsible for some really amazing project at work, and you got that kind of acclaim, wouldn't you be happy?
You can't make a living like that. But should you want to? Why does creative endeavour have to be a profitable enterprise? Why does it have to fill your days? Happen quickly? Why NOT take ten years to write every novel? Why not write in a different genre every time? Take risks, make mistakes, observe no deadlines, FAIL every now and then?
Huh?
Yeah.
Slow Crafting
1 day ago
