I was thinking about where writing has taken me and where I want to go with it. It would be nice to have a defined set of rules to let me know if I’m going in the right direction, but there are no right or wrong ways to go about an indie writing career. There’s hardly any choice I could make that would permanently harm what I’ve built up over the past decade, nothing that I couldn’t eventually recover from, which gives me the confidence and flexibility to try new things and follow my instincts.
Of course the flip side of this mentality is that there’s nothing guiding it. All choices become equally valid and that doesn’t seem right either. Clearly there will be some moves that will make me a happy writer and others that I’ll later call mistakes. I’ll need something as my guide. I’ll need my why.
It’s harder to find than one might think. It’s almost easier to define what are my not why’s. It’s not money, because there are easier ways to make a buck than writing. I could have kept my 9-5 job and enjoyed the steady paychecks and comfortable salary.
It’s not fame. If I were chasing awards and media deals, I’d write stories with a more literary or commercial appeal, rather than stories with pulp sensibilities and pop-culture Easter eggs.
It’s not a compulsion. There are some writers that NEED to get the stories out of their head or they’ll burst. Whether it’s a mania within them, a method of self-care, or a combination of the two, that’s not me. The stories that come out of me are a result of curious exploration, not itchy feet and wanderlust. Hmm.. let’s dig into that.
I’m writing the stories I want to read myself. I love exploring new worlds, coming across the unexpected, and learning how to look at the world in different ways. That’s always been the appeal of Fantasy and Science Fiction for me, whether it’s exploring an ancient ruin with magical creatures or hurtling through space towards a planet populated by intelligent machines. And through these explorations, we get an insight into one of my core questions: how should I live my life? Where should I be paying more attention?
Ah, but why fiction? Why should entertainment be my first concern? I could become a self-help guru, a policy wonk, or a philosopher-essayist. I enjoy reading books written by such authors but they can be so dry, dense, and sleep-inducing. Reading like that can become a chore rather than a joy. I’d rather choose joy.
There we go! I write stories because I want to answer those questions in different contexts and in entertaining ways.
Am I succeeding? What’s the next step that will improve on this?
