It's the first half of this interview that interested me; the second is more Grisham being quizzed about why he writes what he writes. But that first half, where he discusses shrinking readership and the prevalence of 'screen time' is something I think about a lot, especially when I'm sitting in a train and look up from my book to find myself surrounded by faces bent over mobiles. When I left the UK 35 years ago, nearly all those faces in trains were bent over books or newspapers and magazines.
Reading.
(Yes, I know some of those people may be reading an article, but I see an awful lot of scrolling through TikTok videos.)
Anyway, the point of all this is that I'm now beginning to think fiction writing may be going the way of poetry. Perhaps not as fast, but certainly heading there. Becoming a niche pastime. And it makes me wonder why I write and what I hope to get out of it. When I started, it was dreams of being published. But that seems to be a horizon receding by the month. Not just for me, but for many, many others.
So is writing to be just a source of pleasure? With any prospect of publication a welcome, but really rather an unexpected bonus?
I'm still thinking about this.
Still puzzling it out.
And wondering where I'm heading.
Anyway, here's the Grisham interview. Seems like a nice man. And I like his books, too.
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0mjb83d/john-grisham-on-why-he-still-writes-as-trends-shift
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