Writing for Yourself Vs. Writing for the Market

I respond to your comments

Today’s post is brought to you by Wunkerful, who writes One Who Walks the Path to Befuddlement:

A few weeks ago I published a post on advice on writing, which prompted this comment:

“Idea for a blog post: advice on what's worth releasing/when the baby is ready for birthing. i myself could benefit from it.”

Wunkerful (aka Geoffrey) expressed that he was overwhelmed with ideas, a good problem if you ask me, and was having a hard time prioritizing. This prompted a deeper conversation:

“I guess something is ready when it's ready and even if it's not ready there might still be interest in it according to it's merits, mystique, author and history.

my situation is unrelated to that.

I wrote a bunch of romance short fiction and have cold feet on releasing it because...the marketplace planet's favorite play is going for the libido...

there are some video game devs that I know about who are trying to graduate from +18 game development slavery and they're taking knives from their player-base the whole way out. the marketplace is unforgiving, demanding and dehumanizing in a tragically disheartening kind of way. once you've built your brand there's little hope of changing direction.

if i go the romance fiction route and publish that stuff...i could get locked into it and be followed by people who just want more and more of it and nothing else. TBH i'd rather go on in irrelevance and have my freedom than have an addict audience itching for their fix.

These two clouds of thought come down to the point; just how open with the world are you looking to be? my fiction tends to give insights into my psyche/history and so being bared on the page is somewhat anxiety inducing for me. i've noticed that about other young writers--they're always caught off guard and freaked out with how deep a view into themselves they're giving other people.”

I see where you’re coming from, Geoffrey. The dilemma of whether or not to create for a market or create for the sake of creating is something most artists face in one way of another.

My response to this is simple: How depressing would it be if everything in the world was made so that it could be tailored into the perfect advertisement?

What’s that? That’s already the driving force behind the entertainment industry? That’s why old movies and themes are being sold back to us as nostalgia rather than investing in artists willing to go out on a limb to make new art?

My view is that there is enough made to satisfy the algorithms, and if it were up to me I’d make authenticity, real unadulterated authenticity, popular again.

It is of course easy for me to say this as writing is not a source of income for me, but rather a monetized hobby that allows me to have something that is entirely my own while at my day job, everything I do and everything I create is to fit someone else’s mold. It’s in this way that writing is an escape from the paradigm that asks us to conform and that which unknowingly stifles innovation.

I say, let the faucet flow uninhibited Geoffrey, and catch all the water droplets. Perhaps allow the ideas that take root to develop organically and give them time. It doesn’t all have to come together immediately and as fast as you’re channeling it. If you’re still engaged with those ideas after a month or so, follow them to completion and set to have it published. If having your content branch out into multiple genres is in your wheelhouse, then you must be talented! Why make a decision so early on to cut off one stream of inspiration for another?

I also want to add that if you are genuinely overwhelmed and wish to choose one route simply due to time and energy constraints, I think the only way to develop a focus is to explore all those modalities until you find the one(s) you like best. There is value in having all your eggs in one basket (or at least maybe 3-4 baskets instead of say, 11) that goes beyond marketing and instead reinforces quality over quantity. Unfortunately, finding that delicate balance is something only you can ascertain through trial and error. That is what we are all doing here.

As for the part on vulnerability, there are many insights and thoughts I could share on this, and to anyone reading this, please share yours in the comments.

I think that what has helped me move through that was first deciding where to set a healthy boundary. I’ll ask myself “Do I feel comfortable sharing XYZ?” Sometimes the answer is yes, or no, or yes but only to an extent, in which case I explore other ways of conveying the revealing bit of information that isn’t so obvious. This is a good exercise in writing in general because it forces you to try to communicate in different ways and explore other modalities in writing, opening new doors to what’s possible with your style.

To fully answer your question, I confront the discomfort of vulnerability by understanding that ultimately, my readers don’t know me, even if I tell them something deeply personal that happened to me or share a revealing opinion. They don’t know me because I’m not what happened to me and I am not my thoughts. They may think they know me, as many loyal followers do, but that is not possible. So I don’t take it personally.

I’m not sure this is what you were looking for, but I hope it added to your week as you navigate your projects and your life around them. Thank you so much for this request, as it will most likely help at least one other person.

Sourced from: Lectito

Lately I’ve been wondering if there is an ideal day to post. I don’t know if it matters to any of you, but in case does, help me decide in this poll (I’m thinking Wednesdays and some Sundays, how about you?) :