Everyone's a Writer

There is value in rarity. Why do so many millionaire art collectors buy the most God-awful paintings that should exist only in a psychotic's nightmares? Because they're one-of-a-kind, you silly poors!

Writing, on the other hand, is not rare. I haven't taken a poll, but it would not surprise me that perhaps five of the people on my former thirty-person staff are writers of one sort or another, not including me. It's estimated that 7,123 books are self-published in the US every day. I haven't researched the stats for the entire planet, but that's a whole ton of people who consider themselves writers. No wonder books are so disregarded. Plus, only 16% of US adults regularly read books for pleasure. And they all read romance novels (kidding?)  

There was a time when I'd brag to myself that I possessed a singular talent. Regardless of whether my writings sold or not, I could at least tell myself, not everyone can do it. But is that even true? Lots of people can write, and write well. Sure, lots of people can't write well, but you can't judge a writer by a first effort. My first novel was technically well-written, but pretty much a snoozefest. By "well-written", I mean I formed cohesive sentences and I conjugated verbs correctly. So, some of those we might consider bad writers just haven't hit their stride yet.

My work not grabbing people's attention is discouraging, but I neglect to take into account just how pervasive the written word is. It's a competition--a weighted one, sure; and I'm competing against millions of other words and writers. I'm good, but I'm not good enough to beat millions. 

The reason my Substack account rarely boasts a new article is that I'm not an essayist. But on the rare occasion when I surprise myself by writing something really good, I'll stick it up there and think, well, this'll for sure get some feedback! The piece I wrote about "place", first published on this blog, was one of those. It was good enough to post on my author site, and eventually I remembered Substack and thought, a-ha! 

Zero; nothing; I doubt anyone even read it, or if they saw it, they said, "Ho-hum"; here's another article. Yay." 

If you hate competition, don't try to be a published author (or even a self-published essayist). If you're not writing to please yourself, you're going to be disappointed. Cuz you're all you've got, and the competition is unending. Competition for eyes, that is. Not competition to crown the best writer. There is no best. There's the author with a PR team and the author who can pay for an ad in the New York Times. That doesn't make him "best", just flush with cash. Remember, Jacqueline Susann became a fabulously wealthy novelist. Ever read any of her books?

I enjoy reading my own work. Yes, even my past novels that I assumed were terrible. They're not. I'm impressed with what I wrote.

That makes one.