I don’t even own an e-reader but here I am hawking my first e-book. Go figure.
The folders on my hard drive are in two-year increments going back to Fiction 1996/97. All the fiction I’ve managed to complete and publish — here, there, and very rarely in traditional venues — are in those folders (and, yes, they’re backed up and even co-located). I had to start a new one at the beginning of 2022 and it just struck me today that I named that folder Writing 2022/23.
All those previous folders were entitled “Fiction 2004/05” and so on.
However, I seldom write fiction anymore. Wait. Shouldn’t I be focusing on crafting engaging fiction? Spending days and even weeks weaving and unraveling and reweaving stories until I either get it right or give up? Isn’t that more meaningful than writing daily about not wearing a bra, the death of an unpleasant and deeply unhappy woman, lousy jobs I’ve had, cats, dumb mistakes I’ve made, stuff going on in my neighborhood, the “leaders” of our country and their bone-headed moves, pornography, tongue in cheek “advice” for writers, my Mom, the ever-popular Coronavirus, sex, spiritual platitudes, intact penises, current events, and what it was like to be in Tilda Swinton’s arms?
And yet all of it is constantly being shoved down by the daily barrage of new content. When the work of a writer as talented and incredibly readable as Tim Kreider slides into oblivion on these sites, what hope is there for the rest of us hammering away at our keyboards?
Usually, I can slough those thoughts off. After all, it was not a piece of cake here, writing and publishing and promoting new content nearly daily. It all takes discipline, focus, and nerves of steel. And, while I’m not even close to covering my rent or anything like that with these piles o’words, every so often I am blessed with something so much more substantial and meaningful than my tiny monthly token payments (for which I am duly grateful).
For example:
Sometimes, you are just scrolling down on Medium and you suddenly find that someone wrote exactly what you needed to read in this precise moment of your life.Thank you. There are tears in my eyes now.
And for the same piece:
This article couldn't be more important. Thank you for sharing these wise words.
So, in answer to my own question, yes what I was doing there on a nearly daily basis disappeared almost as soon as I hit publish. What I wrote six months ago, six weeks ago, six days ago, it’s gone. It’s vanished except for the fact that I’ve saved all of it (and backed it up).
But my work here is not meaningless when someone takes the time to send me messages like those above.
And who’s to say whose work is meaningful or meaningless? I find a tremendous amount of the work published on so many of these platforms to be utterly meaningless as well as flat out boring AF. To me. However, it must have had some value if only to the people who keep writing and publishing it. What do I know? The piece that prompted those (to me) incredibly powerful responses probably elicited countless rolled eyes and heavy sighs from people I don’t care about.
Have I completely given up on writing fiction?
Oh, hell no. The bug is still there and can’t be ignored forever. After all, I did save up the money to hire a professional editor to give my endlessly patient novella, “Graceless”, a go-over. In the meantime, I have this partner who writes the most original, intricate, sometimes bizarre and always wonderful fiction. He’s a constant source of inspiration.
And, come on, even our reliable old sun is impermanent. Everything gets buried and forgotten. There will be a day when no one will know who Mozart or Einstein or Cher was. Ok, the entire species may have to go extinct for that to happen but it will happen.
In the meantime, I have finally pulled some of my better essays together into my first e-book.
https://books2read.com/b/mZqAgp
© Remington Write 2023. All Rights Reserved
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I sometimes get those kind of comments on my writing. You're right; it makes it worth it all.
And I always make sure to give them when I can for the same reason.
I joyfully subscribed...and now want to buy your e-book. How do I do it? (Not able to for some reason.) Thanks - and congratulations! -Lese