Bring Out Your Dead!

I came across a recent article griping about how there’s no room for new authors because all these old dead writers are taking up space on shelves.  You know…folks like Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allen Poe.  Dammit, shouldn’t they just let these folks die already?  I mean, c’mon man, there are lots of folks out there writing stuff the public wants to read, like Pregnesia, Moon People, and Dazzle!

I get how frustrating it is to break through the public stream of consciousness and make a name for yourself, but I wonder if it has occurred to anyone that these dead authors are still making a splash is because their work was really good.  Their stories continue to transcend time and draw audiences despite the writers not being around any longer.

Of course we’d all like it if book stores could make room for new and exciting authors, but the time period for those new writers to make their mark is small, and if your writing is shit, then you’ll be the first replaced when yet another new writer comes along(it’s not like there’s a dearth of us).  And trust me – you’re not as good as you think you are.  You’re also nowhere near as good as those old dead people.

We all think our writing is awesome, but with some objectiveness, and time, we can gain perspective.  I was enamored of my first novel, OnFreedom’s Wings, thinking it to be the greatest contribution to science fiction since Rendezvous With Rama.  With a more practiced eye, I can now see just how bad it is, and how it would likely have destroyed my writing career just as it got started.  It required some self-awareness to know how much it still needed, and a great deal of practice to get better.  And I still need to get better.

Of course, you can’t wait forever.  I know, I know – I’m contradicting myself now by trying to introduce some nuance, but there comes a point at which you have to jump into the deep end.  You may capture the public; you may not.  However, you’re not going to displace the classics from folks who have long since proven they’re great writers.  What you’re going to have to do is prove you belong alongside them, and hopefully you’ll one day be one of those folks others are griping about not getting out of the way.