What Moves Me

"I, like most writers, will always need to balance the work that moves me ... with the commercial work that supports me."

--Katherine Dykstra

In any field there are basically two kinds of people -- the amazingly great and everyone else. Ask someone like Bill Bellichick, Steve Jobs, or Celine Dion what moves them and it's bigger than football, computers, or singing. It goes beyond craft. It's about doing something at such a high level it consistently knocks people's socks off. That's what I want to do.


So I get a little annoyed with people who imply it's a given that commercial writing can't be great. Or that you can't be just as passionate about it as you would, say, if you were writing the great American novel. Frankly, I think if more literary writers were passionate about what they do then more of them would be successful.

Yeah, the commercial work moves me, and I'm pretty sure it moves my clients because they keep paying my bills.

Katherine Dykstra's article in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers magazine is refreshing because it does come right out and say what many writers and non-writers think. The article, "Literary Laryngitis," happens to talk about voice -- as in how to write like different personalities in order to reflect the different personalities of your various clients (which, in her case, are editors of popular magazines). How do you find -- and develop -- an authentic voice if you're always trying to write like someone else?

Actors do it. Great ones not only find an authentic voice; they use it to bring to life voices much different than their own.

But the real issue for me is not the "how to." It's the premise that craft matters more than its value to your audience. If you are passionate about creating value for the reader, the craft will come. It will be authentic, and it may even be great.