Art and Soul

Art comes from the soul. It needs to come out no matter what. I believe true artists don’t care how they are perceived. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they want to make money so they can concentrate on their art, but if no one saw it or read it they would still make it. True creativity can’t be contained. It explodes out you like a river bursting through a dam. It’s a force of nature that will not be denied. If you can give a true definition of where your creativity comes from, I doubt you have any real creativity in you.

Writing to market, in my opinion, is terrible. You aren’t writing the stories you really want to tell. You are writing what big time publishers want you to write. And while that can pay the bills as a writer, you are destroying your soul little by little with every book that isn’t truly yours. I work a full-time job and put aside money so I can self-publish the books I want to write. And while they are seen and read by a very, very tiny number of people, I’m still writing them and will continue to write them. I have stories to tell, and I feel compelled to keep writing. Not to fill a hole in the market, but because I think they are great stories people will enjoy.

Not everyone who sees a hole in the market (books, comic books, music, etc.) and fills it is doing it because they have the talent and desire to produce great art. They do it because they’re opportunists. They see people desperate for what isn’t there and they have the time and money to fill it. They probably don’t have the talent but that doesn’t matter as long as they’re a good salesman and can market their poorly created art to people who are willing to put their hard-earned money down. They have the funds to push a sub-standard work while those who have a true vision work hard at a 9-5 and scrape enough money together to make their dreams come true. They don’t have hundreds of thousands of people lining up to throw money away.

It’s difficult to write something like this and not sound like I’m coming across complaining. I’m not. I’m just commenting on what I see and how I feel. It is my hope that more independent creators can make a living at what they love to do. I know I would like to write full time because I have so many things I want to write about, but my time is very limited. I would also hope that people see through the opportunists that are peddling garbage and disguising it as art.