The smorgasbord; what you read, what you write
What does it mean to be a niche writer? Are you a vegetarian type of writer, a strict herbivore? Or do you consume whatever you can, sort of a smorgasbord, a bit of this, a bit of that, and oh, take the whole plate of that stuff there.
Do you specialize in one idea, a single theme? Do you never venture into new territory, cross the street so to speak, and talk to the neighbors? If you call yourself a writer, then you’re always exposing yourself to new ideas, sometimes ones that surprise you, even make you uncomfortable. You do that by reading, as everybody tells us, but you also do that by listening to people, trying to be neutral and attentive at the same time.
Financial writers have a single theme, and I can’t imagine doing that for a living. Of course, me and money are barely on speaking terms so that’s no surprise. My guiding principle is to make more than I spend. Most of the time. Beyond that I’m at sea. But I do have other interests. Religion is one. I’m Jewish, and usually orthodox. But I dearly hope God has a sense of humor, although evidence for that is sparse. Still, after all these years, you’d think something would sink in.
Politics is another, and I probably qualify as a junkie in that field. I have books on capitalism, Maoism, fascism, biographies of Canadian prime ministers. I also read biographies, books on psychology, medicine, sports, psychopaths, military history, all sorts of topics, and they all find their way into my weird yet human story.
I listen to people`s stories, and bit by bit I put together a sketch of them. One person I know is a successful businessman who owns a commercial bakery. He always has some story to tell, and I get the idea that he’s a human iceberg, with ninety percent of his experience below the surface.
Another is a semi-street person who spends his days shuffling near the major intersection where I live, asking people for spare change. But he lives in a shelter and has various mental issues, like many people who share his lot. I put him in my series and made him into a hero, in a way. A tragic hero, in over his head, yet defiant withal that.
Then there’s another who ekes out a living delivering invitations and newsletters, and sometimes drives for uber. He hates his jobs, and I think he has some learning disorder. Like I do. Sometimes he’ll tell me a joke he made up, and I understand what sort of person becomes a standup comic, and why so many of them die by their own hand.
I’m just getting started, but you get my point. A writer needs something to write about, and it simply cannot be about himself all the time. We spend enough time in our own head, we need to go out for air, to feed the birds, or see why an alien landing craft is blocking the driveway.
But we especially need to meet other people, to listen to them, take our minds off ourselves and show that writers are just like everybody else, except more bizarre. There are only so many articles you can write about writing, about writer`s block, about editing, and then it descends into what you had for breakfast, why you are suspicious, even paranoid about people who try to be nice to you. Medium may be your idea of professional help, but God forbid you should take important advice from anybody here.
And books. I could spend half a day in a bookstore, looking around at covers or topics that grab my interest. I can’t stand Amazon and its system of predicting what kind of books I like to read. Yes, I did write a paranormal, but it’s as mixed up as I am. My series has a good slice of Orthodox Jewish life some lesbian sex, plus a fair bit of mysticism, in today’s Montreal. It doesn’t get more confused than that.
I can’t wait to be able to meander in a bookstore, a physical place where I can scoop up one title after another and then wait for my next credit card bill to appear in my desktop. Reading is life to me, and so is writing. But life, especially, is life to me.
So I’ll be writing on a variety of topics. Most will be on writing ( I’ll never call myself a content creator, it just sounds so self-aggrandizing and self-important), but on other topics also.
On politics and identity.
On the left, the right, and where writers fit in, if anywhere.
On the transgender issue, which might draw a couple of responses.
On racism, and who gets to define it.
On fascism, and does anybody know what it really is, except those guys over there.
On whatever gets me all riled up .
So let’s get started. See you later this week.