Write Anyway...

Writing today has become something of a self-indulgent form of masochism, it seems. And yet, for the writer --- the real writer --- it continues to be necessary and unavoidable. The state of publishing is incomprehensible. The big publishers have become dinosaurs, so large they can barely consume enough to keep themselves alive, so they rely on known names, known formulas, celebrity exposés and self-help books to keep them alive. Small independent presses abound but competition for readers’ dollars is fierce and much of the mainstream press still refuses to review them. The world wide web creates easy access to readers across the nation and in other countries as well but identifying potential readers and convincing them to buy your book is a continual challenge. Getting them to log off and sit down and read is a whole other matter.

And the so-called “author houses” where anyone with a manuscript and a credit card can become a published author are responsible for an epic dimension of literary litter.

Then there is the matter of what is being produced with all these books. I’m convinced that more books about writing and how to write and how to get published are produced and purchased than books of actual literature. The genre books still sell in their respective markets --- romance, mystery, sci-fi, horror. And there are new genres, chick lit, guy lit, and the utterly discouraging and highly popular miz lit. The popularity of miz lit makes my skin crawl. I keep wanting to believe that people are really inspired by these new twists on the triumph-of-the-human-spirit books of yore but I don’t really buy it. Especially in light of the fact that so many of them have proven to be fakes. No, I think there is a high degree of voyeurism in reading them and perhaps something even more unsavory than that.

So where does this leave the contemporary story-teller who has a tale to tell and who wants to tell it well? The simple truth is you just commit yourself to writing anyway. You find a job or a way to make a living that you can tolerate and you do your real work, the work of writing, when you can. You write because you write. you write because you are a writer. You write because there are stories that need telling and you are the one charged with the task of writing them. And then you just trust --- you trust that you will help them to find their way in the world like beloved children that you have created out of love, and nurtured out of faith and hope, and then set free to make their way in the world.

This isn’t an easy world but write anyway. Publishing today is confusing but write anyway. Writing often hurts but write anyway. Money comes and goes, friends help or hurt, love is glorious and painful --- but write anyway. Loss... loss can break your heart and cripple your spirit ... but write anyway.

Thanks for reading.