Well, this completely buggers up my latest contribution to the world's literary canon, that I was just putting the finishing touches to when this popped up:
10 reasons to subscribe to STSC
1. Read on: you won't believe what happens next.
2. Hear what our writers have to say about the hot topics of the day.
3. All articles bolstered by copious quotations.
4. Only the finest nonfiction (none of that touchy-feely poetry stuff, or fiction written by people who don't have the requisite lived experience to write what they've written about).
5 All articles based on a starter 'written' by ChatGPT.
I'm trying to embody this principle for my own work. While I believe the artist should indeed be paid, there is desire to make art for arts sake and not for bottom line.
My next day job will be systematically used to finance my future projects a la John Cassavetes, Melvin Van Peebles, or Orson Welles. There is a sense of freedom in this approach.
This is a brilliant approach for the STSC. Well done, Tom! This all inspires me to get back into the writing chair.
Kudos. It feels like I have found the opening, perhaps a little door to a small cabin, that I have been looking for all these years. I knew it existed, or could exist, and nothing ever materialized. This, this could be or become it. Once inside the little cabin a great hall appears, with many other doors - waiting to be opened by all of us. And beyond those, other doors. Glad to be part of this!
You had me going with each passing paragraph and at the last you had me gone. 2022, we saw the STSCeeds planted; 2023, we see them break soil and bloom.
Jan 24, 2023·edited Jan 24, 2023Liked by Thomas J Bevan
Tom, I would say that for a long time I've been on board with everything you've articulated, and I have bemoaned / griped (sometimes privately, sometimes publicly) the sad state of affairs, namely how so much content (which by the way is a good word because it merely fills a space) is indistinguishable, one piece from another, and how there's so many hot-new-thing articles when a hot new thing first appears in the firmament, even if it’s just a hot new dust particle, that if you printed them all out you could cliché-stack them to the moon, and the disrespect (that’s how I see it anyway) with which readers are treated due to rules that say sentences must never exceed 12 words by god or otherwise readers will collapse in a state of mental exhaustion from the effort, i.e. the lowest common denominator thing.
I find your viewpoints not only refreshing, but a necessary step. Many say you must write what the reader wants. I say write in a way that challenges the reader to realize that not all of their desires have yet been articulated. That is to say, there may be (and certainly not for all readers) something they find useful, important, enlightening, or enjoyable that they simply haven’t encountered yet. I appreciate authors that are willing to take that chance.
Still, as a writer of unusual fiction, I’m unclear how the collective actually operates, what it might do for me, or how I could contribute to the collective. I support you in spirit absolutely, and perhaps could financially as well, but I’m unsure what being a member of the collective actually means, actually involves. I read a lot of work, work that I find here on Substack, here specifically on The Soaring Twenties, and elsewhere such as other sites and printed books. Most everything inspires me, teaches me, one way or another, and of course to greater or lesser extents.
As a member, how would things be different? When I lived in the big city stateside, I was a regular member of a group that met in person, and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but now I live a long way from anywhere and I find online interactional experiences to be less helpful. Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s the people person loner in me, maybe some of both.
Thanks for the article and for reading. I know you advocate for the long form; I hope that includes comments, too.
Love this ethos. I’ve just come across this guy but felt compelled to leave it here as it feels like art in its purest form and captures the spirit of what you’re about. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s_nc1IVoMxc
What a beautiful piece of writing as well as an inspiration for staying the course! I have gotten involved in so many projects that I rarely have time to read much here. Now I’m hooked-again. Carry on!
I have a particular appreciation for this: "We are bringing back the paragraph."
Well, this completely buggers up my latest contribution to the world's literary canon, that I was just putting the finishing touches to when this popped up:
10 reasons to subscribe to STSC
1. Read on: you won't believe what happens next.
2. Hear what our writers have to say about the hot topics of the day.
3. All articles bolstered by copious quotations.
4. Only the finest nonfiction (none of that touchy-feely poetry stuff, or fiction written by people who don't have the requisite lived experience to write what they've written about).
5 All articles based on a starter 'written' by ChatGPT.
etc
Oh well.
I love every word of this.
Love the last bit you included about breaking the rules artfully. I should’ve read all the way til the end before commenting on it in Discord...
"The money goes back in." 🔥
I'm trying to embody this principle for my own work. While I believe the artist should indeed be paid, there is desire to make art for arts sake and not for bottom line.
My next day job will be systematically used to finance my future projects a la John Cassavetes, Melvin Van Peebles, or Orson Welles. There is a sense of freedom in this approach.
This is a brilliant approach for the STSC. Well done, Tom! This all inspires me to get back into the writing chair.
Kudos. It feels like I have found the opening, perhaps a little door to a small cabin, that I have been looking for all these years. I knew it existed, or could exist, and nothing ever materialized. This, this could be or become it. Once inside the little cabin a great hall appears, with many other doors - waiting to be opened by all of us. And beyond those, other doors. Glad to be part of this!
I love this so much it made me forget I was part of it, and I wanted to join all over again.
This is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant, and something every Substack writer should be studying. I want more!
I also want to join the anointed as a paid subscriber, but I can't figure out how to change my status! How hard could it be? Damn!
Bravo Sir!
Onwards.
You had me going with each passing paragraph and at the last you had me gone. 2022, we saw the STSCeeds planted; 2023, we see them break soil and bloom.
I like this approach. It’s like the antidote to the horrible trend of clickbait via Twitter threads leading to Substack listicles.
Tom, I would say that for a long time I've been on board with everything you've articulated, and I have bemoaned / griped (sometimes privately, sometimes publicly) the sad state of affairs, namely how so much content (which by the way is a good word because it merely fills a space) is indistinguishable, one piece from another, and how there's so many hot-new-thing articles when a hot new thing first appears in the firmament, even if it’s just a hot new dust particle, that if you printed them all out you could cliché-stack them to the moon, and the disrespect (that’s how I see it anyway) with which readers are treated due to rules that say sentences must never exceed 12 words by god or otherwise readers will collapse in a state of mental exhaustion from the effort, i.e. the lowest common denominator thing.
I find your viewpoints not only refreshing, but a necessary step. Many say you must write what the reader wants. I say write in a way that challenges the reader to realize that not all of their desires have yet been articulated. That is to say, there may be (and certainly not for all readers) something they find useful, important, enlightening, or enjoyable that they simply haven’t encountered yet. I appreciate authors that are willing to take that chance.
Still, as a writer of unusual fiction, I’m unclear how the collective actually operates, what it might do for me, or how I could contribute to the collective. I support you in spirit absolutely, and perhaps could financially as well, but I’m unsure what being a member of the collective actually means, actually involves. I read a lot of work, work that I find here on Substack, here specifically on The Soaring Twenties, and elsewhere such as other sites and printed books. Most everything inspires me, teaches me, one way or another, and of course to greater or lesser extents.
As a member, how would things be different? When I lived in the big city stateside, I was a regular member of a group that met in person, and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but now I live a long way from anywhere and I find online interactional experiences to be less helpful. Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s the people person loner in me, maybe some of both.
Thanks for the article and for reading. I know you advocate for the long form; I hope that includes comments, too.
Love this ethos. I’ve just come across this guy but felt compelled to leave it here as it feels like art in its purest form and captures the spirit of what you’re about. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s_nc1IVoMxc
Here for it.
Love this! Yes, let us escape the "walled garden of the eternal present"!
What a beautiful piece of writing as well as an inspiration for staying the course! I have gotten involved in so many projects that I rarely have time to read much here. Now I’m hooked-again. Carry on!