Yesterday, I wrote a short story which was completely (but deliberately) barking mad. I have to say, I can’t ever recall enjoying writing anything as much as I did those 1100 words.
I belly laughed through large swathes of the text I was writing, as well as a read back during this mornings edit. However, now I have the dilemma of whether to publish it on my website garystrachan63.com.
My unease born from the fact I opine it crosses the line between daft and chuffing mental. Normally, I just put something out there, even if unsure, but I’m really uncomfortable about this narrative, which is a fairy tale with some ‘brisk’ language.
Some may say, what’s stopping me? After all the majority of the stuff I write is a bit tapped.
Penning light hearted narratives is a complex task. Not only has the grammar got to be good (my delivery is inconsistent), the story has to flow and be interesting, but it also has to be funny at some level. Humour isn’t an exact science. There isn’t one person in the world, regardless of how funny they are, that will appeal to everybody’s comedic taste.
Ordinarily, the better writers and performers of the genre will make a living from the art, but even then not everyone will like their work.
My writing is solely courtesy of my own sweat (I’m gonna have to stop writing it in the airing cupboard). Every word is written by me, I edit them, add them to my website, administer my website and generally don’t have anyone to bounce my ideas off, in a bid see if they work or not. As a result, the content thrown out there is all untried on anyone and a risk in some ways.
Despite having lots of positive feedback and over 20,000 hits on my website, the uncertainty of the quality of the work always prevails. I have the lucky situation that it’s not my job (I don’t get paid for writing), so if they don’t work I don’t starve……. Well, as long as we continue on this all-paper diet.
At some point, I would like to engage with authors who do rely on their skills to provide for them and their families. I think their input would help me develop, especially from a grammatical and delivery perspective.
I’m not worried from the creativity side of my writing as I constantly have ideas, lots of which fulfil my literally goals. I believe this is a gift and that you can’t be taught creativity, it’s something you have or not. In my opinion, you can be guided how to structure your narrative, but having the ability to channel down creative avenues can’t be learnt.
Unfortunately, along with the gift of creativity comes a propensity for lower, darker moods. It’s a double edged sword that never fully disappears, you can only endeavour to avoiding triggers, such as supporting Leeds United or those things on guns you press to fire them.
One day, I’d love to be able to get paid for something I’ve written. After all, some recompense for the hundreds of hours I’ve spent at my laptop, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of words I’ve penned would be fulfilling.
Only then would I class myself as a writer. As it stands it’s just a hobby; similar to my other pastimes of scratching around, maudlin and shouting “bollocks!” when the final whistle at the end of season Leeds games blew.
One day I might add yesterday’s short story to my website. In the meantime, I’ve saved the eccentric yarn saved onto disks…….. I’ve also printed it off to sustain the family during our all paper diet, so at least some good has come from my trip down random lane.
