The End of an Era [for Writers] via Hugh Howey

I thought this post was an evergreen take amongst the white hot discourse -> https://hughhowey.com/the-end-of-an-era/

His outline on how writing is changing has changed is directionally right. It also rhymes with why we should continue to blog amongst the ruins.

Yo, this blog post could’ve been a freakin’ prompt. I have years and years of blogging for an AI to learn from, and over 20 novels, and tons of short stories. One prompt, and all this spills out. And if your goal is a blog post, you’re gonna love this era. If your goal is the joy of thinking in words, nothing has changed. So this is the real part, right here: Doing a thing for the love of the thing is no different than it ever was. The problem is, there aren’t many people for whom this applies.

Most people write a blog post hoping it’ll change their lives, not just the way they think. It’ll get more subscribers. It’ll lead to ad revenue. It’ll get them noticed by someone in their industry. It’ll get them laid. It’ll get them cancelled for making jokes about getting laid. Expectations that are largely out of their control. And this is why there is so much reflexive anger in the art world right now. It’s never been easier to be an artist. It’s also never been easier to make money PRETENDING to be an artist. Which means its never been more challenging and confusing to be an artist whose goal is to make a living.

The whole post is very well-done with useful forecasts – whether they end up being correct or not. I appreciate the framing, the status games, and how writing will just be a lot weirder in 10 years than anyone forecasts now. Creating has always been a struggle. And that struggle is still there…but it now looks different than the way it did 10 years or 50 or 500 years ago.*

And now, I will go back to not touching this topic with a 10 foot pole.