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Strengths and Weaknesses as a Writer: a Pointless Question

March 11, 2024

Writing

art, creativity, fiction, genre, writing

I recently had a hilarious (as it turned out) experience in a professional capacity. A Gothic writer wanted to hire a freelancer and I was one of the candidates. One of the interview questions was, What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer?

On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with this question. Lazy recruiters have been using this for a long time and equally lazy and conformist candidates have been giving nice canned responses.

The thing is, al this falls apart once fiction writing enters the picture.

So this ridiculous experience – I’ll offer you more details in a while – inspired me to write this post, to clarify why What are your strengths and weaknesses as a writer? is a profoundly pointless question. Any writing adviser, guru, coach, or whatnot who tries to sell you a course or method to “fix your writing weaknesses” is just after your money.

strengths and weaknesses as a writer, AI render of a dystopian city made of files and folders
Those who are dead set on finding “strength and weakness” in everything, will end up living in a city made of files, folders, and boxes.
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The Collapse of Criteria and the Prostitution of Art

March 4, 2024

Society

art, creativity, ignorance, literature, mediocrity, social masses, social media, society, writing

In an interview in 1991 (I will share the relevant excerpt translated/transcribed in this post), the Greek-French philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis pointed out a sobering fact: We live in an era characterized by the collapse of criteria and the prostitution of art.

That is to say, Castoriadis argued, we live in an era with no criteria by which to gauge art. As a result, art prostitutes itself and loses its true meaning. It becomes industrialized.

There are two important elements in this very short excerpt I will discuss in this post:

  • Castoriadis naturally spoke before the internet and – especially – social media. I wonder what he would think about them.
  • Importantly, Castoriadis argues that art should create its own criteria.

If art should create its own criteria, and we observe a collapse of criteria today, what does that tell us?

collapse of criteria. image of Acropolis
The Acropolis of Athens, Greece. Each era creates its own criteria. Parthenon still stands, 2500 years later
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How to Write a Song Influenced by Postrock/Postmetal Sensitivities

February 26, 2024

Experiencing

art, creativity, experiencing, music

This ought to have simply been a “here’s how I write my music” post, but I decided to shift the focus a bit. So this became a “how to write a song” post. And since my music is influenced by postrock/postmetal sensitivities, the weight will naturally be on that.

Perhaps you are not interested in music composition. Maybe you don’t feel that learning how to write a song (of any genre) is useful to you. Or perhaps you play music but not postrock/postemetal. Is there something still interesting in this post for you?

I’d say yes, this post is still something you should read.

The reason? Because creativity is holistic. By learning how other artists work – even if they talk about something you aren’t directly interested in – you acquire useful experiences. Essentially, you can understand a little bit better how creativity works.

And of course, if you are a musician – especially a postrock/postmetal one – then this creativity insight is even more direct.

As a clarification before we begin, this post is not technical in nature. There are, I’m sure, many guides on the internet on which chords to use, or which riffs to focus on to make postrock/postmetal songs. I’m sure there are even more suggestions on what equipment to use. My focus is on creativity.

How to write a song - image of a guitar and bass
I just use this bass and this guitar to make music (plus free software). They’re humble, cheap, do the job just fine. Equipment doesn’t matter; ideas do
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