Attack Of The 50-foot Verbose Mutant Killer Fountain Pens From Mars | Page 5

developed a predilection for headaches.
The muse is a fickle lover at the best of times.
Yet aspiring writers will eventually encounter advice to shackle their muse in commercial chains. They must develop an intimate knowledge of the markets, it states, and think in terms of commercial viability. To write something deemed uncommercial is a sin. The bottom line is all - writing is a business, just like any other. If it cannot be quantified in financial terms then it is considered irrelevant.
Of course, at its most fundamental level, there is some sound advice contained in the market sermon. To send a romantic story to a publisher of hardcore horror is foolish and a waste of time. So it makes sense to nurture a knowledge of markets as pools of potential readership: to know who is publishing what.
The danger exists that this can be taken too far, until the 'business' ethos takes over. The question ceases to be: "Where is the best portal to reach my audience?" To become: "How much money can I make, and how do I maximise my earning potential?"
The markets lead, the writer follows. Eventually, the muse wanders off in search of a more appreciative amour. The writer has become a hack, churning out endless reams of formulaic dross tailored specifically for some market, as quantified on an accountant's spreadsheet. It may produce functional, competent, even moderately entertaining prose, but hardly anything inspiring. A pot-boiler to kill an hour or two, not a shared vision that sears through the mind like lightning.
Good writing sneers at such narrow commercial considerations and mocks attempts at empirical calculation. After all, how can vision, imagination and flair be truly quantified? They cannot. They exist beyond the slide-rule.
Artificial constraints should never be placed upon a writer's imaginative horizons. A piece of good literature (in the broadest sense1) not only stretches the imagination, it is also capable of expanding the markets and breathing a little life into the drab existence of Capitalism's commissars.
Had Tolkien, for instances followed the diktats of market forces, then the Lord of the Rings would never have been written. Nor would many other novels that grace the shelves of bookshops and libraries. The market knows nothing about the quality of literature, and therefore is a poor guide to follow. Far better, to trust in the muse, our writers' instincts, and those of the readers.
AT the end of the day it is the shared vision between reader and writer that makes for good fiction. Whether this touches a handful of souls or a million, the words are merely a delivery system. A means to trigger imagination and emotions. This is a process the writer can never fully control. The readers bring to each work their own subtle nuance of imagination, experience and emotion. Together these facets of the soul effect the way in which the audience read between the lines.
Our readers' response to our words is as individual as the people themselves; a process that is far more engaging than viewing a flickering screen of visual hackery. The visual medium tends to be passive in that we merely observe. Literature is active for it involves us. We, the reader, experience the characters. We see and feel and experience ourselves through that character.
This is the world of the muse; from where she reaches into our hearts and minds. Through the writer she crackles into the collective human brain and down through the ages, growing and ramifying in our consciousness like a glorious oak.
How can the markets come to terms with that? What can the balance sheet really tell us about the quality and worth of a piece of literature? Nothing. Follow such narrow horizons, and writers will inevitably sever themselves from this great flow of human vision. At the end of the day, human beings are creatures that dwell in dreams. These are what compel us to crawl from our beds in the morning and motivate us through our lives - the urge to put flesh on our dreams, no matter how great or small they may be.
WRITERS have always come into their own when striking out against the narrow boundaries of their society. In so doing, they expand our dreams and create them afresh. Consequently they need to be bold. They cannot be timid, for they are expressing the shared experiences and fantasies of the human race, nibbling away at the constraints placed upon our perceptions and viewpoints, exploring what it means to be alive on this planet.
To do anything less not only short-changes the reader it withers the writer. Unless a writer pushes at the bounds, writing cannot develop. If genres were never mixed and merged, if new techniques were never tried, then creative writing would die. As human experience grows and develops, these must be reflected in the novels