re: #2 EmmmieG

And, BTW, I really hate those theories because:

1. Yes, the greatest writer to live could come out of a middle-class family in a small town. Why not?

2. He needed to be MORE than William Shakespeare? Being the greatest writer* isn’t enough? Why aren’t we upset that Isaac Newton didn’t write sonatas or produce art?

*Yeah, yeah, yeah, in English…

As a writer myself, I learned one important lesson from Shakespeare: Asses in seats.

He did not set out to become ‘the greatest writer in the English language.’™ He just wanted asses in seats.

He got asses in seats by writing stories that audiences like, characters they cared about or hated and imparting lessons about the great human dilemmas. He did that well enough that we still read him hals a millennium later.

But all he wanted was asses in seats.