HOLD SOMETHING BACK

A word of advice to anyone putting together books of short fiction and/or poetry: always hold back some of your good stuff. 

Why do this?  Bear with me.  I feel a tangent coming . . .

Think of a really good album you've listened to.  The type where most of the tracks were just that damned good.  And you played it over and over again because it struck a chord in you?  Usually, I'm shocked if two/three tracks on an album are worth listening to these days.  To find more than seven worthy hits on the same CD?  That's almost worth writing home about!

Here's the problem that some of those talented artists faced.  After that great, breakout album . . . their future works were either mediocre or just plain crap.  Causes for this malady may vary.  Some musicians lost their edge.  Others lost their songwriters.  And others still made more money doing movies/TV and devoted less time to their art.

Whatever the cause, when they got around to releasing something new, it wasn't in the same league as the older stuff.  I don't mind if someone heads into a different musical phase, as long as the newer one doesn't suck.  But it's hard to make hit-filled albums over a long career (ask the Rolling Stones or Aerosmith).

Anyway, here are some "theoreticals" I'd like to throw out:
What if Ludacris held back "Fantasy" and stuck it in his most recent album instead?
What if Metallica held back "Enter Sandman" and stuck it in their latest album?
Limp Bizkit's "Breakin' Stuff" could've been held over.
And don't even get me started on Lauren Hill, Alanis Morissette, En Vogue, or LL Cool J (could you imagine if he held back "Mamma Said Knock You Out"?!).

Any of these artists could've put ONE elite (past) track into a so-so/crappy (future) album and gone platinum with a bang.  Instead, they crammed their best stuff into earlier work(s), upped our expectations, and then deprived us of the joy of hearing one of their "old-school" tracks in a future piece. 

These days, stick one good song and 10-15 mediocre ones on a CD and any decent marketing team can turn it into a hit album (ask Saliva or Usher).  Why?  Because everyone plays that one damned song over and over and over and over again until it's embedded in the public's psyche.  Don't believe me?  Wait 'til someone plays "I'm Too Sexy" (by Right Said Fred) in your presence . .  or "Jump Around" (by House of Pain), perhaps?  And for the record, House of Pain's pretty good.  But their breakout album could've had "Jump Around" and 14 tracks filled with farting noises . . . and they still would've gone platinum.

Now, what does this have to do with literature?

Not too much.  I don't think a writer will get worse with age (hopefully, quite the reverse).  But I suspect that we writers/poets go through phases.  And once you're done with a phase, it's hard to go back to it.  For example, I used to do a lot of action-laced sci-fi when I was a kid.  Now, my stuff's more about "what if" concepts, with a sprinkling of violence/weirdness/humor.  I've written horror, fiction, and even a western.  Ten years down the road, I might be doing love stories or detective pieces.  Could I go back to that old action phase now?  Not really.

To you writers and poets, I offer one humble suggestion: hold some of your good stuff back . . . stuff that's timeless.  Sprinkle it into future works, so that your future readers can see interesting bits of the "old" you in your current works.  An added plus is that you won't have to fight to write something from a prior phase.  And, Heaven forbid, if your future works lacks your current fire, you can redeem it a bit by throwing in something you held back.

Just go with your gut and set aside any "hits" you think can stand the test of time.  Put 'em out there when the time/theme is right.  I put some wicked pieces into my first collection.  Yet, I intentionally held some back, with the music industry in mind.  They'll serve me well in future - this I know.  And I imagine that writing a good short story or poem's easier than creating a good song (with the music, lyrics and vocals all in synch).  Who knows?  Maybe I've got nothing to worry about, right?  I might write 30 awesome books without too much effort, right?

We'll see.

Adios, folks.  And please remember: this is just a piece of advice.  Going back to music for a bit, think hard and maybe you'll come up with an artist/group capable of CONSISTENTLY generating great music for a decade-plus.  But they're few and far between, wouldn't you agree?