No one cares.
I come back to this story every once in awhile and I wish I didn’t. It’s upsetting but more than that – and why it always circles back in my mind – is that it is the greatest motivator in my arsenal.
In college I majored in creative writing but I was also a member of the Honor’s Program. Not a bad thing to be part of, it opened doors to new ideas, different philosophies. But it took over my workload and writing became a memory. So I dropped the program.
During my exit interview the head of the department asked for my reasons. I gave them easily enough. Writing is my passion. If I’m not doing it why bother being here? His response?
No one cares.
When asked for what he meant he replied earnestly:
No one cares about your writing.
I couldn’t believe it. This man, teaching about the greatest philosophers in history telling me no one cares about the written word? I had no response, other than to check to make sure my ears weren’t bleeding.
Then he repeated it.
No one cares.
It certainly made dropping the program that much easier.
It gave me doubts, that statement. Doubts about my self-worth, about my goals in life, about everything. It still does to some degree, every time a family member asks when I’m going to get a real job, people that have never bothered to crack open one of my books because of a Big Bang marathon on the tube. (Hey, it happens.) How could I not feel that this man, this oh so wise professor, was correct?
To some degree he was and still is. Some people won’t care. I’m not here to win over the world. I’m here to write and I’m not alone in that regard.
The power of the written word is in everything we do, in everything we take in, from books to television to film to theater. Our culture is dependent on it. On our need to express ourselves and our individuality. To find our own voice in the wilderness. It is why social media has such a hold on us. It is why people love to create. To put everything they have into some tangible product, some all encompassing message.
It is why EVERYONE cares.
Where this lovely little tale comes into play – and coming back full circle to the beginning of this rant. This man hurt me that day so long ago. He belittled the power of what I could do because I wasn’t doing what he wanted me to do. It made me angry and it drove me to keep writing. Not just to remain stagnant but to keep improving, to keep learning about my craft and how to create better and more interesting stories.
Anger, while sometimes leading to the dark side of the force, can be a great motivator but flip it around and it becomes hope. Hope that this man genuinely is wrong about the world – how it is today and how it can be an even better one with my voice in it.
Use what you have, use what you’ve experienced, not always in the tale you want to spin but to drive you to tell the one that is bursting inside you. Let it motivate you. Let it drive you. Because we need more voices in the world. Bigger and brighter and unceasing, no matter what you’re told.
Thanks for reading.
Some great writing books to motivate you:
Steven Pressfield – Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is and What You Can Do About It
Jeff Goins – You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One)
And the gold standard on the subject –
Stephen King – On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft
and wishing that happened more often. Mark Waid’s commentary in the back of his Fantastic Four hardcover collections for Marvel were a treat to read. You can hear his glee at cracking his story in 