I've just read an article that begins, "Could someone please, for the love of God, teach J.K. Rowling how to read the room?" Young writers (and old), please take note: If you write with "the room" in mind -- with audience reaction in mind -- you can't be a writer. Not a real one.
I beg young writers -- and some older writers, too -- not to read the "comments." The comments play with your head and alter your writing. You write in anticipation of them, and it wrecks your integrity. Truly a curse of our times.
Irving Kristol, that wise editor, wouldn't even take reader surveys. He thought it was an editor's job to decide what goes into a publication. A publication will find its readers, and the more integrity the publication has, the more valuable it will be.
J.K. Rowling has "f***-you money," that's for sure. She's the bestselling author of all time. But every writer -- probably every person -- likes to be liked or loved, and it's always hard to be hated. If you're going to be a real writer, though, you have to withstand hatred.
I admire JKR no end. I'm sure her politics are very different from mine. So what? She could have spent the rest of her life accepting laurels, and royalties. Instead, she has waded into the "controversial." That takes spine.
In theory, a writer can get by without offending anybody -- by being so anodyne he is worthless. So too, he can play to the crowd -- his crowd, his camp, his tribe. He will never hear a contrary word. But what a pathetic way to go.
What you want, ideally, is a "honey badger." A writer who just doesn't give a damn. Who is immune to praise and immune to criticism (unless it is of a just and constructive kind). Such a bird, or badger, is very, very rare, of course.
One more thing: You want sincerity and good will. Maybe good will above all. When I dislike an opera production, I ask, "Does it have good will, though? Is it a sincere, honest effort? Or a nasty attempt to undermine the piece [the opera]?" Okay, I'll knock off for now ...
