​You can just write what you want

This is the first in what I hope will be a series of short postmortem reflections on CWKB as a project. I offer these in case they're useful!

Several people have remarked, to me or elsewhere, that this project reminded them that you can just write what you want. (Here and here, for example.) Probably we all know that's true in the abstract, but a concrete instance does something. And maybe I've offered an instance: the sight of someone daft enough to write an epic poem about awful nobles in giant robots.

Writing for yourself doesn't mean, or doesn't necessarily mean, exercising no quality control. If your bliss lies in hammering stuff out and then tossing it into the world unchecked, please continue! But if like me you like to edit, I submit that writing for yourself means choosing for yourself which measuring-sticks you'll press against your draft.

There's a good practical reason to write for yourself. Most people who write don't and won't make liveable amounts of money off it. I respect those who've committed to the commercial writing game, either self-publishing or through traditional paths. For that matter, while I'm no professional author, I do pay my council tax for a month or two every year with my earnings from traditionally published scholarly books. But writing for money is a hard walk and a long one, and for most no career awaits at its end. Perhaps things should work otherwise; I rather think they should work otherwise; in the practical world of our choices right now, though, why shape yourself for a machine which will probably never pay you back?

And here's one other reason to chase criteria you picked: your audience may be few, but they are also more likely to care. Perhaps you will only find a small band of enthusiasts, but they will be enthusiastic!

You can find the next postmortem entry here.