Write Like You’ll Never “Succeed”

My second book is going to be a lot more like the first one than I thought. Seventeen chapters and a similar format, but hopefully much less episodic and repetitive as the first. There are still some holes in the movement though; there’s a couple major threads and part of another major one that haven’t been quite worked out yet. It’s going to take me longer to actually start writing than I thought, perhaps, but if I work on it every day, then I have nothing to be upset about.

Although, when I wrote the first book, I just had a basic outline and didn’t fully know what was going to happen in each chapter before I wrote it. I made a lot of it up as I linked in each plot point. The good thing is, I don’t have to worry about whether or not it’s going to be a masterpiece on the first draft, or even in the final draft–it is art after all–art is made to the best of the creator’s ability and as a result of that creator’s need to create, nothing more (besides an audience and making a living.) Why am I concerned with fame when I’m a nobody? Yes, that is crazy and rather prideful. Silly me.

I remember realizing this week (through a video interview of Dr. Richard Walter) that thousands of art, be it paintings, novels, or film, pour through each year, and many are bad. Some famous filmmakers are even dissatisfied with all their past work, even the maker of Casa Blanca! And all the best ones stick to the later years. However, I don’t think a classic work merely comes about through it being a great work of art.

It’s really a gift, to be brought up high. It’s rather a mystery, who becomes popular and who doesn’t. Some people toil for over thirty years, have no recognition to show for it, and yet they’re made artists. Others create something rather poor once, and they’re instantly successful despite having fair reasons to not be. For example, I don’t like Harry Potter. I’ve watched almost all the movies, but I stopped reading the first book after the first few pages, repelled by J.K. Rowling’s voice, poor writing, the mood, the subject matter, and the characters. Yeah, so a lot of things (no offense to fans.) Another example is Twilight, which I’ve never read but I know is notorious for the public’s generally bad opinion of it. I read the first few pages of one of those books, and found those pages to have excellent style. In any case, why it’s so popular considering how poor it is I don’t know.

Well, I’m still not satisfied with Fish Out of Water, still question if it should even have been published never mind read, and know little to nothing and do little to nothing about marketing it. Yikes. But there’s more to look forward to, and every door that is opened–every success had–is not purely because I worked hard on something; it’s a gift.

I can’t end here. I know there’s more to life than making art as my highest fulfillment. Making art isn’t my highest fulfillment, like Dr. Richard Walter seemed to pose for himself. It’s walking in the fear of the LORD and enjoying and employing the talents He gave me for His sake. That’s real success. Fame can come or it can stay away, and I’ll be fine if it’s just me and my art.