There are a lot of people in the world who write. Some of them publish what they write. Good for them, I say. I’ve managed to do that, too.
However, there are plenty of people who write who stop writing. Sometimes they run out of ideas. Sometimes they get distracted by other business. Sometimes they give up, unsure of themselves. Or they doubt anyone would want to read what they write.
I’d like to remind those people, the ones who worry about readers, exactly what the rules of Write Club are.
The first rule of Write Club is always write for yourself.
It’s your idea, after all. Please yourself first. Explore the interesting aspects of the story that has intrigued you enough to want to write it. A famous person whose name I can no longer recall once said “Write the story you want to read.” I follow that advice religiously–without actually writing anything religious. My entry into writing came from my reading; I soon believed I could come up with a better story, so I tried.
Now I’m stuck with it. Stories come into my head, kick off their shoes, prop up their feet on my nice upholstered brain and dare me to write them. Sometimes I do, sometimes I let them stew a bit hoping they will write themselves. My current work-in-progress stewed for a year before it reached a boiling point and had to be written just to get it out of my head and make room for something else.
So go ahead and write the story the way you think is best, the way it suits you. Make it the story you want to read. You’re a decent human being, a fair reader, a nice person, right? So why wouldn’t someone else want to read something that YOU want to read? If you put your heart and soul into it and you’ve gone through all the checklists of revision and editing, who can say it won’t be suitable for others to read? Then you can entertain thoughts of whether others would enjoy reading it.
And if you decide nobody else would like reading it, then…well, then you have some free time to start writing another story. Because…
The second rule of Write Club is never stop writing.
STEPHEN SWARTZ is the author of several Myrddin novels: AFTER ILIUM, THE DREAM LAND (Trilogy) (Book I, Book II, Book III), A BEAUTIFUL CHILL, A DRY PATCH OF SKIN, and AIKO.
More of his twisted sarcasm may be encountered on his “other” blog: DeConstruction of the Sekuatean Empire and follow him on Facebook (Author Stephen Swartz) and Twitter (@StephenSwartz1).
