Shane Stevens Saturday: Privacy and The Writer
The one thing that can't be disputed about Shane Stevens is that he is a private man.
I think that's a difficult idea to process. We live in a different world now. Today, information on anyone is much easier to find. Not so in Stevens day. You could go through life without leaving much of a trace. And when you combine that period with someone who is as naturally secretive as Stevens, you get...nothing. You get his meager Wikipedia entry.
Yet, beyond how our world has changed, the writing game has shifted. The nature of the industry now seems to require every writer, whether established or just beginning, to be on Facebook and Twitter, maintain a blog, sign fans up for their mail list and hold contests.
Shane Stevens didn't have to do any of that. At all.
Is this a good thing?
I mean, for us, as writers? Wouldn't we all be writing more if we didn't have to do this? Does are visibility make it more difficult to separate the writer from the writer's work?
And what about a writer like Shane Stevens? A man who values his privacy beyond anything else? How would he make it today? Could he?
I think that's a difficult idea to process. We live in a different world now. Today, information on anyone is much easier to find. Not so in Stevens day. You could go through life without leaving much of a trace. And when you combine that period with someone who is as naturally secretive as Stevens, you get...nothing. You get his meager Wikipedia entry.
Yet, beyond how our world has changed, the writing game has shifted. The nature of the industry now seems to require every writer, whether established or just beginning, to be on Facebook and Twitter, maintain a blog, sign fans up for their mail list and hold contests.
Shane Stevens didn't have to do any of that. At all.
Is this a good thing?
I mean, for us, as writers? Wouldn't we all be writing more if we didn't have to do this? Does are visibility make it more difficult to separate the writer from the writer's work?
And what about a writer like Shane Stevens? A man who values his privacy beyond anything else? How would he make it today? Could he?
