Dealing With Metafictional Challenges

I'm just not sure I understand the point of such a project. If you don't have a great idea on how to do it, then what's the point?

I keep seeing posts in this subreddit where people are asking "How do I do this incredibly experimental thing with no commercial potential?" and I'm like...why? I mean, realistically, unless you're already deeply involved in experimental literature then what's the point? Nobody reads experimental literature except, you know, extremely pretentious literary arts majors who publish in small experimental lit journals. You're writing for an audience of maybe 500 people in the whole US, and if you have to come to r/writing to ask how do, then -- and I don't mean to be an asshole here, there's just no nice way to say this -- you're never going to impress any of those people or get any recognition for your work.

The only experimental writers who have ever had real success are William Burroughs and Mark Danielewski. Burroughs went to Harvard, Danielewski went to Yale. Both of them are certifiable genius who spent years studying the art and craft of writing before attempting experimental works. Both of them studied cutting edge philosophy and literature. If you're here, asking this question, you aren't them.

Maybe just trying writing a good, normal story, and see if you can pull that off. That's hard enough.

Sorry if this came across as mean, but sometimes you got to be real with yourself.

/r/writing Thread