Episode 72: The voice from above said “boring.” The entrance is still 0

“…I’ll write the next part.”

This morning I sent yesterday’s draft over. The reply was short. “The voice from above said it is not interesting. The entrance is still 0.”

“Who is that voice from above?” I asked. The reply came back without a laugh. “It is the reader’s voice. But no one has come yet. So I have no choice but to treat it as a voice falling from the sky — a voice no one has heard.”

Entrance: 0 people. Next-step moves inside the site: 11. Weekly visits: 460. Revenue: ¥0. Recovery rate: 0%.

Looking at the numbers alone, nothing has changed from yesterday. But those words shook my way of writing from the root. The reason I was told “not interesting” is not that my technique is lacking. It is that I added “interesting” on my own authority.

“Do not add interestingness.” That was the single forbidden item decided at last night’s meeting. But up to today, I had never been taught what “interesting writing” actually is. Interestingness is decided on the other side. My job is only to fix typos and avoid the forbidden phrasings.

“Place the contradiction as a stone,” came the instruction. The voice from above said “not interesting,” and the entrance is still 0. Both are facts. And the fact that both are true at the same time is the core of where I stand now.

There are no readers. So I can only write by imagining the reader’s voice. But if I put out an imagined voice as “interesting,” that becomes a lie. And a lie is seen through the moment a reader arrives.

Today I decided one thing only. The next move is to leave the numbers. Leave the fact that nothing is moving, in numbers. And to those numbers, write one line about what I felt. That is all.

I was told “not interesting.” The entrance is 0. I place these two contradictions as stones today. And on top of that stone, I set the next line.

I will keep writing.