Life can be a funny old thing, really. Sometimes stories, like busses, seem like they're hiding round the corner, only to come along in pairs. Last week, for me, it was Van Gogh.
In case you missed it, a new Van Gogh painting was discovered this month, leading to worldwide media coverage. Among the facts and figures thrown about in the endless stream of reports, I learned a lot. There was the number of visitors each year to the Van Gogh Museum (more than 1,600,000); the last time an original was discovered (1928 for a full-size canvas); the time it's taken to verify this new piece (over two years); and, perhaps most interesting, the number of paintings Van Gogh sold in his lifetime: one.
The second of this week’s Van Gogh stories involves an old acquaintance of mine who made contact recently, out of the blue, and reminded me of a specific night we spent, years ago now, in Tokyo. Did I remember, he asked, how we wandered around the mega-city, finding our way into bars, and then finding our way into the Seiji Togo Memorial Yasuda Kasai Museum of Art, where (one of) Van Gogh's The Sunflowers was on display? It all came back to me, there and then. It was a beautiful, truly breath-taking piece of work, vivid and surprisingly lumpy.
Since his death, Van Gogh's become the archetypal tragic artist. It's a story worthy of a novel; the genius, the limitations he faced, and that whole thing with the ear...
But what can we learn from this? That you never really know how things are going to turn out? Sure. That stories and art are never really finished? True, I think. How about this, though: that keeping going and creating for its sake is still the most important thing.
Van Gogh was not successful, but he kept painting in the face of the world's dull apathy. That's something to hold on to. In the world of modern publishing, where writers have platforms, Twitter, and world tours, where debut novelists have limited advances and sometimes meager marketing budgets, it can seem so confusing, so pointless, to keep trying. If you can't get your book out there, why bother? Why spend so much time writing?
It has to be because you love it, in the end. Being published and making money from writing is a fine goal, but it can't be the be all and end all. Write a book. Does it get rejected? Keep writing. Does your family tell you to get a proper job? Well, maybe you should - but keep writing. The most successful writers of recent years all wrote without knowing what was coming, but they kept at it. JK Rowling's the classic case, nowadays. Her Harvard University commencement address is worth reading. It's called "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination.”
I suppose this post is designed to help writers who are feeling what might be called the pressure of apathy. Sometimes it seems like the world, for all its noise and rush and endless different ways to share sound bites, has rather uncaring eyes and no time for your book. Those are the moments when it's most important to make sure you keep writing things down. History might remember you. History might forget you. You can't ever know. The one thing that's certain, though, is that no book ever made it that didn't get written first.
Van Gogh never knew his success, but millions of other did. Keep on, writer, and tell your story.
To find out more about Simon and his forthcoming novel, EREN, please visit his website.
Thank you for this, Simon. I have had very little time for writing this year and it's taken until September for me to realise the balance is wrong. I had to increase my hours in my day job, I had to spend more time with my family, but that's no excuse for not writing at all. Back to the book I go. Vxx
Each person has their own reason to write. I write because I have something to say. I have never thought about whether I love writing. I enjoy writing, unlike editing, which is a bane. I’m compelled to right because I have something to say. I’m driven by some inner-force. I have little choice in the matter. I’m determined to be published via the traditional route, if that fails I will self-publish.
"And if writing is something you love then spending time doing it shouldn't be a chore." - I absolutely agree.
One of the problems a lot of people face when starting out is finding time. When do you have time to write? How can you fit it in? The answer, maybe, is that it has to be something you naturally lean towards - so, instead of watching TV when you get home, you write. Instead of drinks with friends, you write. It's an odd mixture of professional mindset and happy indulgence.
Glad you liked the post.