Am I a selfish writer?
My fellow writer David Bridger recently shared his thoughts about who his audience is, and that post got me thinking about what I write and why, which inevitably led to some other topics as well.
Like David, I write what I love. And that doesn’t always translate into large audiences for my work.
I’m lucky and privileged not to have to support our household with my writing, so I have the luxury of writing whatever inspires me. I don’t worry a whole lot about what the market wants, what’s hot and what’s not, or whether I should write to fit a specific genre.
Maybe I’m selfish.
Maybe I don’t want to have my creativity squashed into a box that’s defined by Amazon and Google keywords.
My books, niche though they may be, have always found an audience. I’m delighted when other people are also interested in the ancient Minoans, or the way magic might work in the world, or any number of related topics, both fiction and non-fiction.
What I really wish, though, is that no one ever had to squash themselves into those search-term boxes just to pay the bills.
If you want to write genre literature, that’s great - you do you! But *having* to do it because it’s what sells enough to put food on the table, that’s no fun. It can ruin your enjoyment of the creative process to the point that you begin to loathe the thing you once loved.
Creativity is a gift and a blessing. I wish our culture valued it more, in all its many and varied forms. Because when people are able to create in an unfettered way, it makes the world so much more beautiful for all of us.
I’m sure there’s a way to make it possible for every creative person to do their thing unfettered by the restrictions of market demand. But I have a hard time imagining society changing that much, especially not in my lifetime.
In a world in which the richest person could give 1 billion US dollars to each and every human being on the planet and still have, by my calculations, over $178 billion left over, there’s no need for anyone anywhere to be hungry or unhoused, much less unable to fulfill their creative urges and desires.
But of course, human greed will get in the way, won’t it?
Ultimately, maybe I’m not the selfish one in this situation.
I completely agree with you when it comes to writing fiction. Mind you, I do recall back when I used to work as a feature writer for a living. There were a whole lot of magazine and newspaper articles I wrote that were basically hackwork to pay the bills. I don't regret that. I'd rather have been writing advertising features for a property newspaper (one of my roles) than working at the local supermarket on the tills.
I don't think you're selfish, I agree with your thoughts. I think it's more important than ever to be authentic in an age of AI and a bewildering choice of books.