Let me entertain you...

 

Oh, the joys of being an author, the best job in the world!

If you are a creative; if you love writing and telling stories, you will agree with me. We love what we do. We pour our heart and soul into our stories. We write alone for days on end, forgo sleep to get those stories out of our heads, invest our savings in this business, come up with characters and make them suffer so readers can feel things for them…

And yes, I said FEEL.

Our job is to make people FEEL things. Things they (probably) will never get to experience. Things they dream of. Things they are scared of. We strive to startle them with horrible monsters, make them fall in love, and empathize with other human beings. It doesn’t matter whether the feelings are pleasant or unpleasant. As long as you made them FEEL, and thus, remember they ARE alive, you did your job.

Most times, we manage to do our job well, and readers manage to connect with the spirit of our stories, be it deep or light-hearted. And that's when you close your eyes and tell yourself your story was worth writing.

But, sometimes, people won't enjoy your story. It will NOT be for them. It will not evoke the feelings they were expecting.

A book, like a movie, a song, or a painting, will never be universally liked.

In moments like that it's easy to forget why we're here.

We're here because we are entertainers.

We are in the "written" show business.

We sell dreams on paper, imaginary visions, movies in people's heads.

Some will love our imaginary movie.

But some will NOT.

This is my reminder for you today to keep writing your stories.

Of course, listen to readers' feedback, but always remember you are here to provoke emotions, FEELINGS, in the reader.

We want them to feel SOMETHING. We want them to live other people's lives through our books, and experience worlds they would never see in their day-to-day lives.

So, if you are an author, today I just wanted to remind you that we are here to entertain, and we shouldn’t take any of this too seriously.

It's all just a show.

And the show must go on.