Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
– Cyril Connolly.
Cyril was an English writer that penned the above quote, which I can’t help but wholeheartedly agree with. Although the task, the goal for a writer is to have his writings read, it is not necessarily the same as having his writings AGREED with.
Once you are concerned with the public, and what they think, and what they will like… your voice is lost. This is one of the hardest realisations I’ve had to fight against since beginning this public blogging process. Before this blog, I had an anonymous blog that was quite frankly, fantastic. I wrote about whatever I wanted, with very little censorship, because I knew out there, no one knew me. I didn’t promote it and I didn’t care. I had 3 followers, and I don’t even think they followed me all too passionately – it suited me just fine, knowing I could say whatever the hell I liked.
It’s a very different ball game now. I think of discussions and ideas and issues, and some sadly have falled to the wayside over my fear of ‘what will happen when I press the publish button?’
Fiction isn’t as hard to stay true to. Because you are creating a pretend world, even if you are expressing your thoughts through your characters, the end product is that your protagonist thinks that, not you.
In bloggerville, your blog = YOU. There’s no getting around that fact.
The answer? I don’t think there is one truth for all writers. It all depends on what kind of writer you want to be. Do you want to please the masses with your safe expressions, or do you want to be revolutionary and in the process be slaughtered for your frankness?
Or do you wanna dance in the middle, giving them all some pleasure, and some pain?
I’m going to try my damndest to not give a shit, all while dancing away from the pitch-forks…
