megwrites

My problem with "self-censorship" is that it implies an alternative state in which the writer just does stuff and it works out. But we always have to make choices. Some happen entirely or partly unconsciously, and some are deliberate. But every act is a choice: this story and not that, this character, that paragraph length, these lines of dialogue, everything. We are always making decisions that add up to priorities in our art, craft, and commerce. And raw stream of consiousness turns out not to actually produce good art or craft or commerce either. (Kerouac planned and pondered before writing, too.) I dislike describing all conscious consideration as some kind of imposition on a hypothetical free and pure spirit.

Some considerations are worthier than others, and some more relevant than others, and I don't see that the language of censorship helps us make those evaluations any better.