My Early Self-Indulgence Echo Chamber
photo by bitteroot
In politics, an echo chamber occurs when a community of like-minded individuals repeating a claim, which resonates as truth, since it amplifies beliefs already held by the echo chamber participants. In this intellectual utopia, you needn’t be inconvenienced by criticism or evaluating new information. Similarly, successful writers with a significant body of work, often drift into self-indulgence. Late in their careers, their brand is strong enough that whatever they write will meet critical acclaim and/or top the New York Times best seller list. They write in their own literary echo chamber.
I’ve decided to bypass the early phases and jump right to the end and opt for early self-indulgence. Unfortunately, I don’t have the benefit of a great body of short stories and a strong brand. I will write in a different sort of echo chamber, and what better echo chamber than the one in my head?
It will require great discipline on my part to maintain this echo chamber. Newer and struggling writers are encouraged to seek out other writers and get feedback. Fortunately, as an older, struggling fiction writer, I can deflect some of this encouragement through an age weary predilection for a hermitic lifestyle, avoiding writing workshops and conferences and writer groups.
Yes, I plan on enjoying my early self-indulgence, writing creative meta-nonfiction, villanelles about tapeworms, one sentence flash fiction allegories about the Baader Meinhof gang, and dialogues with a single character.
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