How Irritating that the Top Writers all Write about Writing or Self-Development

I’m not gonna do it, yer bastards.

Sure. I see the temptation.

But I call it doing a ‘Tony Robbins’.

Old Mate Tony did the dastardly deed back in the day. He released a book called Awaken the Giant Within. The success of that book awakened the giant within Tony.

I suppose the kids might call it meta.

For me, though. I would call it a pyramid scheme. For decades people have become successful by teaching people how to become successful.

Now, it seems a disease is rapidly becoming a pandemic (Cue everyone freak out. You can’t say pandemic. Well, I just did okay.).

So, first, a message to anyone thinking about taking this appalling road to success:

If you have had no success as a writer or anything, entering the success niche makes you a con artist.

Furthermore, self-development is another sickening niche that is drowning with people regurgitating the same information with a few words shuffled around.

A good portion of people on meditation apps such as Insight Timer claim to be meditation teachers. They have paid courses with titles like: Nurture your inner elf and, Awaken the fire of your capitalist chakra.

It feels to me like half of these people are so-called entrepreneurs just trying to make a buck out of the niche.

It’s easy.

Take a picture of yourself smiling like you have discovered some kind of inner peace then people will believe you that you are happy all of the time.

I want to kick some of those people in the nuts (or equivalent) and see if they can maintain the smile.

If you believe people like that, then stop. You would be better off meeting an authentic spiritual teacher who rarely gives you a smile in between doing everything possible to make you angry.

Writing about the experience of writing can be excellent. But as instruction, it’s so often just a cop-out.

We all know we could surrender to doing that and probably see some success. That is a sign of how desperate people are to be successful.

But why take advantage of desperate people?

Isn’t it better to just write your words and die in poverty like the greats?

When I say the greats, I don’t know who I am referring to. I could throw around words like ‘Hemmingway’ and ‘Kerouac’, but the truth is it would also be fake.

I stopped reading fiction twenty years ago in lieu of Buddhist texts. Then when I decided to write a novel, all I kept hearing was:

‘Great readers are great writers’.

So I tried reading fiction again. The truth is, I find it primarily dismal.

For some reason, I enjoy reading Salinger and Bukowski but struggle to find many other authors that make me want to read past the third page. (I also read the Harry Potter series several times).

I managed to get through Ham on Rye because it felt slightly closer to reality without the ‘exquisite prose’ that makes stories drag out so much.

But that’s it.

Finally, I gave up. Why should I bow down and force myself to read fiction?

Since then, I have just written whatever comes into my head. That can range from long-winded spiritual discourse to gif filled rants about weird sexual habits.

Would I like to make money from Medium?

Sure, I would, but if you think I’m going to start writing about things simply because I believe will bring me success, you can stick it up your arse or ‘ass’.

And all of you new writers pumping out writing advice every day and eighteen-year-old life coaches and unsuccessful success coaches, you better get your shit together and start writing something real if you don’t want to gradually morph into a soulless potato.

Great writers like Stephen King write about writing, but they do it every now and then. They don’t have it as their primary genre. That’s just bloody weird.

We have become obsessive about money and success to the degree that beauty and art, and human feelings are taking a back seat in this world. Why don’t you let the corporations and governments go on with their shonky power-grabbing schemes and decide to take another direction instead?

The path of authenticity

Isn’t it time you stopped engaging in pyramid schemes and started doing some real writing instead?

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Also, do you like books, kind Sir/Madam/Other? How about bald, penis rocket spacemen who sell books? If so, visit my author page at the cracked head gasket of the economy AKA cockrocket.com.

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