How to be a "serious" writer

It’s past 11pm. I am officially having "Night Thoughts". Now is the time when I decide to throw away all current ideas and become a serious writer. But what does it mean to be a serious writer? What am I saying about other writers when I make that declaration? These are things that must be considered.

I suppose I perceive a "serious" writer as one who writes "serious" fiction, whether that's literary fiction or genre fiction. It's well-written. It's spoken of as if it's serious. Rivers Solomon is someone I think of as a serious writer. They do serious writing in the horror genre. A serious writer makes art.

How do I do this? I don't know. I am a fundamentally unserious person; I take very little seriously. I suppose this blog is about my journey towards this goal. Hopefully I won't bore you with too much talk about writing. I'll read my blogging-for-authors book and work out how to write about interesting things. For now, I'm just spilling my Night Thoughts onto the page.

I suppose being a serious writer comes with having a serious writing project. And I don't just mean this blog! I need to come up with a piece of art that will be taken seriously, that other people will perceive as serious. Doesn't that sound dull? It's my job to make it interesting and fun.

Getting started means reading the thousands of "serious" books I already own. That will inspire me. I currently have sixteen open books on StoryGraph. I'm not good at picking one book and sticking with it, just as I'm not good at picking one writing project and sticking with it. I have to pick one, just one, and dive into it. That will give me something to chew on while I work through my ideas.