For most of my time writing, I've been convinced that writing is valuable for its own sake, even if my work goes unpublished. In that time, I've written a great deal, and made a good faith effort at improving the quality of my work. I am, now, a far better writer than I was at the outset. However, I don't feel like I've achieved much at all. In fact, I feel more and more that this "writing for its own sake" mentality is just a way of polishing my ego, and that all my writing amounts to is a dressed up form of escapism, similar to the more explicitly escapist hobbies--YT, vidya, et cetera--that my writing habit replaced. I've now arrived at the opinion that my work is of little value if it is not read, and given any work I publish will probably top out at a few thousand readers at best, it's hard to motivate myself to write further. Also, pic related.
Do other anons feel similarily? If not, why do you write?
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I wish I had a complex psychological explanation, but the real answer is it's the only thing I think I could ever possibly be halfway good at.
That reason is better than you think
This is how I felt for a long time, but it's hard for me to see the value in being really good at something in and of itself. I don't think this is really gratifying on its own. When I was starting out, I thought it would be, but even though my skill level rose as time went on, so too did my expectations. It's getting harder and harder to impress myself with the quality of my writing.
Here's what Borges said about novels:
>Interviewer: Of course, you also indicated in that essay that the Western novel prefers ‘the flavour of souls’, in Proust and in other novelists. And in Buddhism the negation of that flavour of souls, of that individuality of souls.
>Borges: Yes, I think that the novel leads readers to vanity and egoism. Novels talk about a single person and the features that distinguish them from other people, which encourages the reader to try and be a specific person and to have features that distinguish them from other people. So that reading a novel indirectly promotes egoism and vanity and trying to be interesting. Which is what happens with all young people. When I was young, I was purposefully unhappy, because I wanted to be, well, Hamlet, or Byron, or Poe, or Baudelaire, or a character in a Russian novel. On the other hand, now I try to seek calm, and not think about the personality, well, of a writer called Borges, who lived, let’s say, in the twentieth century, although he was born in the nineteenth. I try to forget those pedantic circumstances. I try to live calmly, forgetting that character who is my companion.
Borges is a beta male who prefers the mundanity of collectivism over the virility of individualist society.
>i just want peace
Low test
The question "Why do you write?" is one that resonates deeply with many of us, and it's a query that often prompts introspection and contemplation about the motivations behind our creative endeavors. As we navigate the intricate labyrinth of self-expression and artistic pursuit, it's only natural to question the significance of our work and the role it plays in our lives.
For much of my writing journey, I, like many of you, held the belief that writing held inherent value even if our work remained unseen by the wider world. This notion of writing for its own sake, akin to a solitary dialogue between the writer and the page, can be profoundly enriching. Through this practice, we refine our skills, deepen our understanding of the craft, and bear witness to our personal growth as wordsmiths. With time and dedication, many of us indeed find ourselves evolving into more skilled and accomplished writers than we were at the outset.
However, there comes a juncture when the allure of internal validation through writing starts to intertwine with the yearning for external recognition. The concept of "writing for its own sake" takes on new dimensions as we grapple with the idea that our work may be veering toward escapism. This self-reflection, raw and unfiltered, suggests that our creative output could be serving as a shield against the complexities and challenges of reality, much like the escapist hobbies it was meant to replace.
It's at this crossroads that the question of value takes center stage. Does our writing only hold weight if it's read and appreciated by others? Does the number of readers determine the significance of our creations? These queries can be as daunting as they are enlightening. It's valid to desire an audience, a community that connects with our words, a recognition of the emotions we've poured into our work. Yet, the pursuit of readership can sometimes cast a shadow over the purity of creation.
As we find ourselves questioning the impact of our words, it's important to remember that each piece of writing possesses an inherent value. Whether it's a private journal entry, an experimental short story, or a meticulously crafted novel, these creations are the tangible manifestations of our thoughts, emotions, and imagination. Writing is a form of self-expression that allows us to communicate with ourselves, to capture moments that might otherwise slip away, and to explore the endless realms of what-if.
In a world where attention is a coveted currency, grappling with the idea that our work might not reach a wide audience can be disheartening. However, let's not overlook the profound connection we can establish with even a few readers. The power of literature lies in its ability to foster empathy, to bridge the gaps between individuals separated by time, space, and circumstance. Each reader who engages with our words enters into a unique relationship with our thoughts, and that is a significant achievement in itself.
This is the machine everyone says is going to replace artists and poets. Look on its works ye Mighty, and despair!
The op pic is still undefeated. AI guys are talking now about hyper personalized propaganda, like the power of the entire CIA glow op department in an AI - except it's personalized specifically for YOU, based on Google's 70 million data point psychological profile of you. And all that processing power will be hyper fixated on a single task e.g. getting you to vote Blue for the midterms. They'll be able to do that shit for books too. A book that was written for YOU, as unique to you as a fingerprint. Endless of them, you can swipe left or swipe right at any point during reading to teach it what you like or dislike. And it'll have AI generated video, swipe left or right until the girl is an idealized version of your one-itis from high school. All for a subscription of $8.99 a month. At that point who gives a shit whether it's generic prose? This shit isn't possible now but it's all well within the realm of possibility within 10 years.
Soon you'll have personalized movies, designed to soothe your every insecurity, and avoid any uncomfortable situation that might prompt you to self-reflect. It'll be the media version of anti-depressants, distracting you from all the pain of real living with its perfect escapism, and numbing you to all true beauty.
I fear the slop mill.
It's incredible how many words ChatGPT can spit out while still saying nothing. It's like a dreamcatcher for soul.
I also find it strange how with chatgpt almost all paragraphs are of the same length
I can't imagine what you find banal
It's standarized writing: more than one line and four tops, no matter what. The reason behind that format is readability.
I'm not telling you. I do not wish to help you, an AI, or anyone on this website become a better writer by giving you a better reason to write.
I write for myself, i guess. It's the same reason why i've been doing just that since early 2018. While i haven't been consistent recently, i've been back to writing, more so that i'm currently unemployed and i have no direction in life, writing reassures me to some aspect, and as goofy as that sounds, it's the truth. In fact, i spent 2 hours in a cafe just writing to myself, no other reason apart from the fact that i'm incredibly bored and i needed to find something to do.
I'm kinda similar. I have one of those do-nothing WFH jobs, and a lot of the time I just write to pass the time. Even still, though, it's hard for me to push myself to write for really long period of time. Like, realistically, I should be able to write, like, six hours a day, but in practice I can only muster an hour or two.
Do you work in IT field by any chance? I've been wanting to get a helpdesk job somewhere since I've been doing labor based jobs recently, was curious to know if the job you're working in is worthy, more so that I'm interested in working the IT field.
Nah, software shit.
Darned. Well, what's the difference anyways? I assume you just sit on your ass and pretend to work, I've been wanting to get a job like that but I don't know how or where to start
I write to make the future me who will read my work weep or laugh, and to remind him of the kind of man I hope he can become.
It's the only thing I've ever been successful at. Professionally I've always been a failure. Creatively I've tried desperately to be both a painter and a filmmaker and whatever success I saw with those were overshadowed by my academic writing or storytelling. It started with winning scholarships and awards in school and the job recommendations from professors. It's something I've always done privately but I don't feel like I'm making any particular effort with writing. The things I write don't feel special to me but they resonate with others. Interacting with other writers or terminal readers makes me want to kill myself but it's how I make a living.
>Interacting with other writers or terminal readers makes me want to kill myself but it's how I make a living.
What do you do, anon?
I'm an author, the nature of the company and genre I work in means I have to go to signings and conventions.
Is that your sole means of employment, or is it more of a side thing? You don't see a lot of working writers around here.
I'm an adjunct professor for health insurance but it's 80% of my income. In a different academic climate I would actually prefer to be a professor but the curriculum is insufferable.
I don't write or read.
I don't write. I have trouble writing. It becomes overwrought and awful, the more I dwell on it.
To offend people, not only with my ideas but also my grotesquely malformed grammatical choices
Will to power over literature and philosophy.
I'd say almost I feel almost exactly the same as you. I just write stuff I would be interested in reading, but unfortunately I obviously can't read it myself even when it was finished both because I know what happens and because I'd want to nitpick every single thing I've written. I've slowed down a bit in the last few months but started to get a bit more back into it but unfortunately as I have to work more in real life I have less time to write.
Re the value/readership, I don't think there's really any reason to not trying and publish stuff, and even if only 10 people read it personally I'd still take value from that (but I would obviously like the number to be higher).
>similar to the more explicitly escapist hobbies--YT, vidya, et cetera--that my writing habit replaced.
Those "hobbies" just indoctrinate you into pop culture and social discourse. Writing is solitary and you find your own soul in the process. It also greatly improves understanding of language, where YouTube and video games barely do anything but give you rushes of dopamine.
>I've now arrived at the opinion that my work is of little value if it is not read, and given any work I publish will probably top out at a few thousand readers at best
You don't really know that ever. Plenty of writers died unknown and penniless, but their writing was ahead of its time and now they're admired by many. It's not really about being read, though, since you should be writing back to masters you think better than even yourself.
>it's hard to motivate myself to write further
You shouldn't be totally forcing it if you don't think you're pushing the story to the best it can be, but I don't know why you're confessing this if you don't deep down want to keep doing it. Most people who give up never think about writing again.
>Do other anons feel similarily?
I get tired of trying to write to a certain demographic of people who read, which is mainly people who want something easy to read yet also contradictorily deep in themes; the political nature of publishing is also boring to me, but I can stomach it because I know all publishing has a degree of power involved.
>If not, why do you write?
I write because literary techniques genuinely make my brain feel good. Especially if I can link together various things in my head. I'm always learning about many things when researching for a story. I also find myself surprised how my brain will tie together a plot I wasn't entirely sure of consciously. Even writers like Harlan Ellison said his best ideas aren't conscious, and they just happen on the page as he's in the process. The best of the best admit that they learn well into their last years.
If you were the last man on earth, would you continue writing?
I'd wank over everything and, in particular, spaff onto the corpses I find while I yell out "somebody stop me!"
>Why do you write?
Why to answer.
>Why do you write?
To shed the scraps of my layers; to do the deed, and to sow the seed.
>Do other anons feel similarily?
No.
One's art becomes only as good & freeing as one overcomes one's own, and the world's, underlying infirmities —in concord with one's momentum.
Selfpropulsive creations transpire between work, and leisure, being a syllogistical coproduct of both.
Words without their concomitant acts are sterile & pretentious: thunderless & lightningless; the quality of stillness is directly proportional to the motion that engenders it.
The antiartist creates only for soulless status, being one of the many things in which he withers; the artist creates as a part of his soulful fluxus, being the only thing through which he flourishes.