I write books. When I want to “create content” I do it on this blog. (And a few other internet sites.) These aren’t the same thing. I find it distressing that publishers are trying to drive us to ebooks where content can easily be changed, as opposed to print books. The shelves of this room are lined with books and the technology doesn’t exist to come in and change “data” without my knowing it. Facts are secure in print, right Ilimilku? I’m not looking forward to a Star Wars future where there’s no paper. I was born in the last century and, perhaps, I’ll die there too. You see, when you write a book you have a project in mind that has an endpoint. It may change and shift as you write, but you know what a book is and that’s what you produce. It gets shelved and you move on to other things. (At least I do.)
Content is something different and the creative process behind it also differs. If I find something wrong after the fact, I go into my past posts and change it. I’m not afraid of admitting I’m wrong. The point of this blog is to share ideas with the world, not to write a book. (Although, I confess that I would not say “no” if someone in publishing wanted a selection of worthwhile posts for a book… just saying.) It amazes me how publishers have pretty much gone after the money and have forgotten what the creative process is like. Of course, they’re having to figure out how this whole internet with free content plays into it too. But still, my book writing uses a different fold in my gray matter than my blog writing does. All of it feels pretty different from writing fiction too.
These things together adds up to a writing life. I have a ton of “not for publication” writing. This is something different again. I suspect it will never be read by anybody, moldering away on some old hard drive after some AI-induced apocalypse. I write it for of the same reason, I suspect, that people used to spray-paint “Kilroy was here” on things. The book of Job, it seems to me, was the preservation of words that someone simply had to write. We know the framing story is folklore. But those who have words to carve with iron on lead, or engrave on a stone to last forever. It’s more, I hope, than just “creating content.”
