Why Do You Write?
Tell me it’s not about appeasing algorithms and making millions.
We write love letters to algorithms. We write to appease, placate, and conform — our words are music for the masses. We use little words, compose simple sentences — we write a story so palatable even a child could eat it.
We copy and paste what’s fashionable and perhaps change a few words. We are search engine optimizers and title testers. We write what self-proclaimed “gurus” tell us to write without realizing they make money peddling fiction. They’re deft marketers, not artists. They’re a copy of a copy, and for the low low price of $289 we can aspire to be unoriginal too.
Are we writing for a person or every single person because there exists a difference.
We write pietas and throw pity parties about how we’re writing and writing but we’re not making money instead of asking has my work gotten any better? Have we wrenched our reader’s still-beating heart out of their chest? Have we informed or entertained them in a way that’s wholly our own, wholly in our voice? Do we follow a formula? Are we hitching one-night-stands with AI whores and their sullied wares with their promises of we’ll make you smarter, better, richer!
But what they’ve actually done is dulled our edges. Satiated our hunger, our urge to…
