Writing Blog Number 2

20240201 Public Consumption Of Art

Public Consumption Of Art

Now, I have come to write a lot of my stuff with one eye to publication, gearing it towards the sort of things publishers and editors like, trying to make that elusive next sale.

However, sometimes I write for me, knowing perfectly well the works will never be published anywhere, that they just defy easy categorisation or are too weird or strange for anyone to take a risk. Surprisingly, this makes up over half of my completed works.

As someone who is trying to make a living as a writer, why would I write stuff that no-one (or very few) are ever going to read?

This is a question I have been hit with a lot since I started this alleged career. And the answer is something that comes to many artists – because not every idea is a winner or commercial. How many times have musicians had their weird and wonderful songs released after their death? Some musicians recorded these things or wrote these songs just because they knew they had to get the idea out, but then, after they died, to milk the name for as much money a s possible, their estates released what was never meant for public consumption. Painters suffer the same indignity. And writers? Harper Lee’s posthumous book was never meant for the public, but there it is anyway.

This is just the stuff that has become public. How much never saw the light of day, dying when the artist themselves died? This shows that this is common.

I write because it is what I do. Not everything is going to be worth being viewed. But we are artists and sometimes we need to do things to get them out of our system.

Maybe I should post some of these unsellable items here at WdC. Make them “no review” items and just see if people want to read weirdness. Or, more often than not, Robert E Howard pastiches, D&D based fantasy, Stephen King pastiches, and attempts at humour that only I find funny.

So, I guess the point of this post is simple: not everything you create as a writer (or in any art) needs to be great and needs to be seen by others. Sometimes it is fine to just do things for ourselves.