Behind the Curtain - Writing Advice
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I realized something the other day. I get really, really excited at the prospect of someone new seeing a piece of my work. Don't get me wrong, I don't enjoy criticism any more than the next person, and anytime someone reads one of my stories there is a chance that they will absolutely hate it, but I find that fear is strangely not as powerful as the excitement that someone else might truly enjoy something I've created.
I've thought quite a bit about the act of creation of late. Morris Rosenthal over at www.fonerbooks.com said in one section of his website something to the effect that when he first learned about the internet, that he expected in a few years everything you could possibly want to know about anything would be available for the taking.
While it could be argued that there is an incredible amount of information free for the taking, he said that things haven't lived up to his original expectations. As I recall, he believed this to be due to the fact that while there are any number of people who will market this or that, there are very few people who actually go out there and create original content.
I think he's by and large correct. It's one thing to dash off a comment in a blog, or post a quick reply on a forum, but by and large the creation of significant, new content is the kind of thing that isn't done quickly or easily and consequently people generally do it only when they are able to find a way in which to profit from their efforts.
Generally when you do see free, original content on a site it is because they are trying to use that content to drive traffic so that they can sell something or drive some kind of advertising revenue.
I don't necessarily see anything wrong with that. When you come right down to it, I guess it comes down to the fact that I view creation as an almost sacred thing that requires at the very least two separate steps neither of which is necessarily easy.
First comes the mental, or spiritual if you prefer, creation. In a book that's the mental effort that goes into plotting, sketching characters and a host of other things long before the author even picks up a pencil. It's a process that requires time, sometimes significant amounts of it. The time may be scattered in bits and pieces over a few months, or even a few years, but it's very much there and it's very much something of value.
Most people wouldn't argue with me about the value of time. It's implicit in how so many of us get paid. You accept the job at the so many dollars per hour and in return for you continuing to offer up hours and days of your life to the tasks your employer has selected for you, you're compensated at the agreed upon rate.
From the standpoint of our employer, the value of our time is reflected in the value of what we accomplish for them while we work. As the value of what we are able to create with an hours worth of work increases or decreases, the perception of our value as an employee will tend to go up or down more or less in lockstep. Of course there are always exceptions to that, but it's a general rule that tends to be fairly accurate.
From the standpoint of the employee, the value of our time tends to be influenced by the scarcity of said time, and our knowledge of what other employers would be willing to pay for our production. I think both of these concepts are generally well understood, but it is remarkable how fluid or attitudes towards them can be. All of us are guilty of squandering hundreds of hours on things that we secretly know aren't of much value, but it isn't something that bothers us until something reminds us of our mortality. When the transitory nature of our existence is most heavily weighing down upon us we value our time more greatly than most other things.
Returning to the act of mental creation, in addition to the time component, there are also demands placed upon the mental energies of the creator. Anyone that's worked a mentally demanding job can attest to the fact that there is an exhaustion that has nothing to do with our muscles or joints. Maybe mental energy isn't the right term, but there is a resource that is consumed as we think, one that requires time and rest to replenish.
Again, the assigning of value to our mental effort is a tricky thing that is dependent on a mix of different people's perceptions, but there is no question but there is a value there, and that it isn't necessarily equal between different individuals.
Given all of this, how can one not argue that mental creation from the standpoint of the one creating that it isn't valuable? It's used up valuable time, limited mental energy, and is sometimes a unique endeavor that required the sum of all our experiences to date to arrive upon.
Despite having value to the creator, the mental creation is of much less, if any value than the physical creation. There are plenty of instances of people being paid astronomical sums for nothing more than an idea, but that is only when the perceived value of the physical creation is so high as to easily make back the amount spent to acquire the idea.
Proceeding onwards then to the physical creation, additional time and effort is expended in order to bring the idea into the next level of being. I think generally that the resources required for physical creation are many times greater than those required to merely mentally create something, but the value of the physical creation is consequently many multiples of that of the mental creation.
Why then is it that so many of us fail to ever take our mental creations to the next step where they have at least a chance of creating value?
Obviously not all creations are worthwhile. They may be many times more valuable than the idea that launched us into activity, and still have no value to a dispassionate observer.
Still there are plenty of good ideas that are never realized and worthless ones that are brought into full physical existence. I think instead the main deterrent comes down to the extra resources required to physically create something.
Even in the present day in some of the richest countries in the history of the world, human nature is such that we tend to think in terms of scarcity and deficiency. It matters less to us that we have many times more than our forefathers, than that we aren't possessed of all of the things we would like to have.
In some ways this aspect of human nature is probably bad, but in others I think it's a one of our best qualities as a species. The simple fact that we aren't entirely satisfied with our station is the very thing that has allowed us to harness the forces of nature around us and provided a standard of living that would have been unimaginable even just five hundred years ago.
Still, the fact that it requires resources to bring our creations from nothing more than an idea to a fully realized form, creates built-in disincentive to our creating things. Of course there is always the chance that these creations will be viewed by others as having value. If that happens there is a chance that we'll recoup even more than our investment in resources, but again there have been plenty of good ideas over the years, ideas that their originators were positive would make them money, which haven't ever been physically created.
I think the reason is that it takes a special something else to finish the act of creation. For some people it's pride and a sheer refusal to back down after someone has told them that their idea is impossible. For others it is nothing more than excitement at the thought of seeing their idea come to life that pushes them through to the end of the process. Whatever the reason, I think that the ability to see something through both stages of the creative process is one of the most invaluable of the gifts we can possess.
Sometimes we may run across someone who's dedicating their time and energy to something we don't think will ever come to life, but it is sincerely wrong for us to squash their desire to create. Help where possible, redirect if redirection can be gently given, but don't dishearten or you may deprive the world of it's next Thomas Edison.
To my great shame, I'm guilty on at least one occasion of doing just that. At this point I can only do my best to make amends and encourage everyone else not to make the same mistake.