So a weird thing that's never happened to me before happened just the other day. Writer's block. But, it's not what you may think. This doesn't involve the novel that I'm currently writing that I really don't know how to write. Cause that's going okay. Slow, but okay. This was a travel article. A TRAVEL ARTICLE I SAID. How weird is that? Because if there's anything I know (how to screw up) it's travel. I mean I'm intimately familiar with travel. I have a million things I could write about it. And that's part of the problem.
After hours of considering what to write, I did finally come up with something that I was happy with. But the whole experience of not knowing which direction to go in was unnerving. So, I did what I always do. Over analyzed the situation. And after hours of questioning why a little travel article would put me in an existential crisis, I had my answer.
I never write with the market in mind.
I don't mean to offend you, but never has it ever occurred to me what readers want to read. Sorry, how negligent of me. I've always just written whatever I feel like at the time. Although, I do consider my family and my friends and I try not to trample toes of my loved ones, which from time to time might cause me to nix an idea here or there.
Maybe I've been doing this all wrong from the beginning. Maybe I should be writing with a target market. I could write a hilarious taxidermy blog that would be so popular. Wait. I guess that's already taken. Hold on, maybe my novel should be zombie porn. After all, they are the two most popular genres at the moment, why not combine them? But that's not how I write.
I write because I have to write.
I write what I'm passionate about.
I write what I'm passionate about.
I write with my heart.
Thank god my heart, and the rest of me, is passionate about travel. So, after a lot of work, I'm pleased with my article Traveling with Kids: A Manifesto. And so was the purchaser. Yes, someone BOUGHT IT, like for real money, not Monopoly money. First time ever. I think I like this. And I already have an idea for another article now that we finally told the kids we're going to Thailand...
8 comments:
Congradulations!
Writing about what you know and love...who would have thunk it?
I'm with you, Marie! I don't do that either
The link to the article didn't work for me. Where is it? Would love to read it. And I agree with you - much easier to write about something that just happened to you that you're passionate about (either because it was terrible or because it was great; mostly, though, because it was terrible) than writing for a target market. But you can't ignore the money:-) Congrats on selling an article, it's a good feeling!
There is now a link at the bottom of the post.
Yay, congratulations Marie!! Real money for what we do here is always always great! Keep writing from your heart and for your passion. It's really the only way to go.
Why do we write? I have no idea. I just have to write. And just like you, I don't care about the market. At some point, you have to do what you have to do, right?
thanks for posting the link, I love your article!
Keep up the good work! Don't worry about all the writing stuff you're supposed to do. If you pay attention to that, you'll get writer's block.
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