Recently, I watched some YouTube videos. Most of them were the usual stuff: What to do in the summer, what to do when you're bored, now vs then videos.

One video stuck out to me, however, and made me think about who I wanted to be as a creator. Mikey Murphy posted a video about how when he creates content that is overdone, it gets double the views compared to something he really loved to make and put a lot more effort and passion into, but is something different and unique. This video spoke to me.

So, here we go.

I want to create.

I want to be a writer. I want to be an author. I want to create stories.

Sometimes the real content is hidden on no fault of the writer. For example, school newspapers. They put the most appealing article on the front page. Do the real issues end up on the front? Not in my experience. It's always the pretty stuff, the stuff that might make people pick up a copy, whether peers read it or not. School newspapers can be a great way to start getting work 'published,' especially for new writers, but they can also be bias.

Something similar happens on Wattpad. There's one thing I noticed on Wattpad: people read the same stories, just like people watch the same YouTube videos. It's all about the romance and the bad boy who likes the good girl. I put some short stories on Wattpad that I really loved writing. They all have less than 50 reads. I wrote one romance, one typical summer romance. Sure, some romance stories on Wattpad are actually really well written and quite popular, most are impressive, unedited novels. My story was a way to prove a point. That story, the romance I wrote, got over 130 reads. Was it fun to write? Yeah, sure. Was it something that I absolutely loved? No. Do I love writing stories for Wattpad? Of course I do! It's a great way to express a writer's variation, I personally only put stories on Wattpad that I will not publish, which tend to be more varied in genre than my full length novels. Also works on Wattpad could potentially be taken by others, but I have not heard a case of this occurring. Wattpad is also a great place for new writers because many writers start off writing fanfictions and Wattpad is known for their wide variety of fanfictions(both good and bad!) It's a good place to write (and read) good stories, but like every writing platform it has its downsides.

Back to the moral: I want to create stories that I love. I want to love what I create. I don't care about the shares or the reads or the likes. At least, I don't want to. I want to be an author and not care about whether my book sells well, whether it's in every library, whether it's written into a blockbuster movie, whether said movie does well in the box office opening weekend, or whether my story turns into a television show. I don't want to care about whether my book has a wide audience or whether just one person reads it. All I want to do is create something I love.

Some of the best books have the best messages. Some of them are barely found in bookstores and libraries. Some of these books have movies, they may not be popular, but they have a message. Some of the best movies are the ones not found in every movie theater, without all the promotions and commercials and clothing lines and merchandise. Some of the best movies are independently made, found at film festivals with great young actors. Some of the best stories don't have movies to accompany them at all, they stand alone against millions of others. Some of the best television shows are the ones that are never completed, canceled before the story could conclude, without books to explain the cliffhanger at the end of the last episode.

There is something that these books, movies, and television shows have in common. The people involved in these things create. They create beautiful, intriguing, meaningful, entertaining stories. They may not be the most popular, they may not sell the most merchandise, they may not even be able to complete the telling of their tale.

But they had the chance to tell a story and they took it.

They created something.

I want to create.