The Question Of Who

I haven't been able to sit down and write for some time now.  It's not because I don't have the time, it's not because I don't have the motivation either.  I also wouldn't be so quick to label it writers' block for the simple reason that I have had a myriad of ideas running through my head which I'd like to write about and I have had topics I want to research and explore.  The reason I haven't done any of this is because I'm in a mindset at the moment where I am finding it hard to judge what others want.  When it comes to this blog, most of my posts are simply the articulation of my thoughts which I push out into the ether with no real thought of who might read it or what they think.  This blog is very much a creative outlet.  I do write more than what I post here however.  I write novels which I publish through Amazon via Kindle Direct Publishing, and I write other pieces for publishing elsewhere.  It is my writing beyond this blog that I haven't been able to progress through. 

When you write a novel or a work of fiction, you have to consider a target audience, you have to consider a genre and themes etc which help you market what you write.  You can abandon all of that and write free-form but what you will produce is something which will prove very hard to promote.  Google and the nature of the internet as it is today has pushed people into a corner where the only information that they can find online is the information they actively seek - in other words to "find" anything online you must already know what you are looking for.  This is perhaps one of the reasons viral marketing has become so popular, in many ways it can be considered a metaphorical cactus of creativity, which travels across the internet popping the bubbles we trap ourselves inside.  Viral marketing transcends what you search for, and creates content that actively finds you instead.  Which is all fascinating I am sure but the basic point is novels don't go viral.

Virality online centres around things that are short and to the point, usually funny, or disturbingly graphic, neither of which fall under the range of subjects I write about.  I guess what I am saying is when you create content you do it for consumption and when you have no-one in mind to consume it you find yourself with a barrier to the creation process.

I guess this all comes down to myself asking a simple question, "Who am I doing this for?"