Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Confession time about the project. When it began, I was unabashedly ready to sell out, a stance I now know isn’t sustainable. I remember discussing a potential story arc and judging it not by its capacity for meaty characterization or memorable set pieces, but whether it would appeal to women, men, or both markets, ideally. If some people write for the love of the craft, then I was decidedly on the other end of the spectrum.

The drawback to this approach is your work quickly becomes unappealing to you. On most days, I’m pretty much spent from the day job and whatever else is going on, so mustering additional emotional capital can be herculean. There has to be a spark to make the effort interesting, because before you amass a loyal readership, you’re your own biggest fan. That said, the realization that the creative industry has never been so democratized is also a driving force. All you need is a good yarn and some savvy marketing, and you can make it, traditional barriers to publishing be damned.

That’s the hope, at least, so let’s call it a draw–half passion, half mercenary. On Friday, we stumbled upon a potentially rich framework to tie everything together. It felt like we struck gold, such was the creative high. Now, I need to marinate on it, see if it has legs. There is something tangibly electric about imagining where all this is heading. It’s a completely new mindset for me, in which the dreaming is as important as the doing.