Adding: Writing the book that you -aren't- finding out there on the shelves is what motivates many, many writers who go on to be published. The funny thing for me is that I can't often tell those authors from the ones who are writing for entirely different reasons when I pick up their books. I don't have a strong sense of comparison to other work when I write, fwiw. I know what I'm trying to do, I have a 95% certainty of what its constraints are (fantasy isn't suddenly going to sprout SF elements), etc. But it's the emotional structure and the story that are important, and the strength of those are independent -- as I'm writing -- from whether or not the story is new, different, original, etc.
This may make me a writer who doesn't take this seriously in some fashion or another, because I'm not exactly certain (in case this wasn't clear) what you mean. I work in service to the story compulsively. I try to edit the story when it's finally a manuscript in service to the theoretical reader. I try to aim the revised, finished work at the theoretical market, if there is one for it. I read a lot in order to get a sense of how the market is evolving.
* ETA the italics in the above sentence, sorry for lack of earlier clarity.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-08-16 09:39 am (UTC)The funny thing for me is that I can't often tell those authors from the ones who are writing for entirely different reasons when I pick up their books.
I don't have a strong sense of comparison to other work when I write, fwiw. I know what I'm trying to do, I have a 95% certainty of what its constraints are (fantasy isn't suddenly going to sprout SF elements), etc. But it's the emotional structure and the story that are important, and the strength of those are independent -- as I'm writing -- from whether or not the story is new, different, original, etc.
This may make me a writer who doesn't take this seriously in some fashion or another, because I'm not exactly certain (in case this wasn't clear) what you mean. I work in service to the story compulsively. I try to edit the story when it's finally a manuscript in service to the theoretical reader. I try to aim the revised, finished work at the theoretical market, if there is one for it. I read a lot in order to get a sense of how the market is evolving.
* ETA the italics in the above sentence, sorry for lack of earlier clarity.