Stories in the mind, on the page, in the marketplace

The usual itinerary is this: a story begins in the mind as an idea, gets developed on the page, and ends up in the marketplace to be shared. This was my own story-path through most of my career.

But things began to change as I got older. The psychology of writing began to change. In the beginning, validation was important to me. As one commentator said about screenwriters, "Screenwriters are ego-maniacs with low self-esteem." Perfect!

As one experiences success, at whatever level, validation becomes less important. Later, for the older writer, validation is irrelevant

As a result, the usual itinerary of a story begins to change, too. I find this fascinating. First, the step from page to market changed. I found I cared less and less about marketing my work. I wanted it available, yes, I had not become "a closet writer," not yet, but I didn't want the hassle of marketing, especially in the current atmosphere in which marketing had become far more essential, far more highly regarded, than when I began my career, when the serious writer was looked at more as a kind of monk, a creator and protector of literary culture, than as a huckster of literary commodities in the marketplace, so that Salinger and Pynchon could become downright sexy by being reclusive, unavailable to book clubs and book tours, invisible. In this new stage, I found it easy to end the story's journey on the page, make it public somewhere, such as in my online archive, and letting it go.

But I feel the stirrings of even more change, even more fascinating. I find myself flirting with the connection between mind and page, with ending the story in the mind where it begins. That is, I feel an attraction to writing the story in my head and letting it go at that. This is remarkable to me.

But it also brings to mind something I read years ago: in Zen, poetry is not the words on the page but the mode of thought in the mind of the poet.

POETRY IS NOT THE WORDS ON THE PAGE BUT THE MODE OF THOUGHT IN THE MIND OF THE POET.

That's so unAmerican, I thought I should emphasize it.

Thus, today, even with outside-in projects, I find myself struggling more than usual just to "get them down" after I create them in the mind. It's so easy just to stop there, self-satisfied, the story born and permanently housed in the mind alone.

An interesting state of affairs indeed. I have no idea what happens next. Stay tuned.