A word about writing - and this might be pretty important whatever it is you're planning to do - now I've decided to go it alone (see post from day before yesterday), a lot of pressure has disappeared. The pressure was self inflicted for sure but I've always worked that way. I've stopped thinking about 'might be' and 'what if' and a dozen other things and have probably written more in the last few days than I have in a long time. The icing and the cherry on the cake for me was that I just read Seth Godin's new book The Icarus Deception which (as I'm sure is the point of the book) snapped everything into a very fine focus. Allow me to drill into it if you will. The general gist of the book is everything as you know it is broken. Some of us know this, some of us don't, but regardless of which tribe you fall into doesn't change the truth of the matter. It's 2013 and everything is different, everything is changing and if you think you've got a handle on it, then you've missed the point because it will all have changed again by tomorrow anyway.
Keeping focussed on the 'being an author' train of thought, I think it's important to chew that over. The only way you can be an author is by finishing your book. Then writing another and another until you don't want to do it anymore or die. It has nothing to with a publisher giving you permission to be one. Or an agent. Or whether the public buys your book or anything else. The money I'm sure is very nice, but if that's truly your prime motivation, you'd be better off becoming an investment banker or a drug dealer.
The story is all there is - and I suspect in my own spiritual way - that the universe will find you an audience when you've done good work - providing you don't just leave it sitting on a hard drive or in a notebook under your pillow.
Anyway, back to Seth Godin (and you should read it, not just listen to my lousy paraphrasing of it): it's time for new 'stuff' to happen. It is a new world out there. A new world in which anything is possible. I realise now (and how could I have been so stupid) that while I was 'waiting' (that might be the wrong word) for somebody to step up to the plate and say "I don't give a fuck what the publishing industry thinks - here's my book", what I should have been doing was to be that person.
Visibly. Not just in my head.
In the back of my mind, in an alternative world, I have sat here many times and said Stephen King should do this... or Gaiman should do this. 'This' being to go it alone - not for the money but to prove it can be done, but why should they? They paid their dues once. Why pay them again? And somewhere inside I think I wanted them to do this because I perceived them as 'safe'. If it didn't work out, they would be OK. That was wrong of me. It may be safe but really, what would it actually prove? Maybe I was looking for some kind of role model. A Dirty Harry style lone gunman of the publishing world... but I have no idea why I thought I needed that. Insert smilie face icon of choice at this juncture if you wish. This searching for answers thing is hard work. I should learn to quieten my mind and stop asking so many damn questions. I'm a big boy now.
The real world answer is that I need to do it for myself and maybe I can help some others out along the way. If it all falls apart and the world thinks my books suck/are incredible, that's fine too.
My job is simply to keep going.
Yep. That was me thinking out loud in public. Thanks for listening...
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That's enough of that. Let's get back to inane-ness. Californication starts again next week. Here's a cool interview with David Duchovny for Rolling Stone.
And to raise the mood before you go, I heard this on the radio earlier on. Great song. Great band. Stupid hat.