Art for Writing's Sake

So i have been thinking about writing a lot lately if you can't tell. As such one of the things i have been thinking about is criticism and editing. See i haven't written a lot of things, a few sure, but compared to "real" writers i am nothing but a flash in the pan so far, just a brief beginning of my writing experience. I mean compared to some writers i might as well have only written this paragraph so far. There is still so much left to develop in my own style and choice in writing.

So thinking about this and really, about art in general cause even though my paintings and pictures suck i love em, even though i can't play music i am passionate about it, and even though at times my singing is epically bad i still do it. Why? Because i have an "artistic soul" some might say, because i love expression others might say. My reply? Because i do.

I don't know why, i can't really explain why. I love understanding and knowledge and expression. If that makes my soul artistic than fine, if i love expression that's fine to. Personally what know it is that it doesn't matter why, what matters is that i do.

And i know people who consider themselves artists, consider themselves writers, and they see this as a grand expression. Art is seen as some kind of connection to the divine, as if in creating the artist is becoming more than themselves, becoming something greater. And to be honest now i disagree with this thought.

It might be because of the fact that i am currently trying to read the bible from cover to cover (only 730 pages in mine but still hard to force yourself to do) or because i have just finished reading a book about encounters with famous and brilliant authors who offered great works to the world. Artists are no different than regular people. To paraphrase a line from the movie Julie and Julia so that the meaning comes through a little easier, she wasn't always famous, she wasn't born a great chef.

Have you ever met those people who create art for "art's sake" and then get upset when someone criticizes it? If it truly is art for art's sake then it doesn't matter if someone doesn't get it, it doesn't matter what someone thinks of it, because in the creating its purpose is served. This blog is my art for art's sake, but not completely. My journal, that private space, is my writing for writing's sake, the paintings i create and don't bother to show people are examples of art for art's sake.

I don't care if you don't like them, i do. That is what art for art's sake means. The moment you intend to let someone judge your work and that opinion matters enough for you to argue it is not longer simply being created "for the art", it has become for the people. And like all public works it is offered up to all the cynics out there to tear down.

Does it make your work less valid? Less special? Fuck no. Your work is as special as the effort you put into it. If you lock yourself in a shed for 8 months working on a novel, a painting, a song, and then come out of your seclusion only to find someone else has already made it, it doesn't make it any less of yours unless you were trying to copy their work.

Y'all know i am attempting to write a novel (and so far seem to be failing because i simply don't sit down and write it) and that i have edited my work thus far a little bit. What you don't know is that there is a friend of mine who is the best and worst editor in the world. Best in that her editing doesn't pull any punches because you are a friend, and the worst for the same reason.

Am i letting her edit my stuff yet? No, not yet. Yes i have posted it here for anyone who wants to, to read it and judge it. Yes you can comment all you want about it and most likely i will let said comments go up. But no, i probably wont make changes on anything you say as of yet (unless you find a REALLY obvious mistake, like putting hedgehog instead of duck). Why? Because though some day i dream of publishing this story that is cooking inside my head, right now it is still a work for me.

One day it wont be, one day i will be a little less selfish and let other people help me shape it. But not yet, for now it is still mine.