Day 205

Writing should not be motivated by money. It must be for the love of it

…

In my mind, there are two types of writing.

One is where it is done as a paying profession, in which, in most cases, you might be a journalist.   It can be a long, hard slog, working away on the bread-and-butter news.

Once you have established a reputation for producing award-winning stories, you can move on to more serious stories.  One would assume that’s when you are adequately recompensed commensurate with your ability.

Still, it’s not like writing a string of number one best-sellers and becoming a multi-millionaire.  Hard slog and determination to begin with, but as time passes, sometimes the work becomes more pedestrian.

Of course, those number one bestseller books often are borne out of the material used in those halcyon journalistic days and a fitting reward for all the hard work.

This, of course, is not meant to denigrate anyone; it is simply an opinion of some observations I have made over the years.  Nor is it sour grapes because I’m not one of those mega-rich authors. 

I definitely fit into the second type of writer living in my imagination garret, sacrificing everything for that first brilliant novel

How many times have we seen the spouse work slavishly at two or three jobs just to keep the place going while the struggling writer finishes that great novel?

And more often than not, living it up, having affairs and not really making any progress at all.  Or is that the Hollywood trope?

I have written that first novel, and about thirty more, but success eludes me.  I’m pragmatic, though.  One day, I get my break, but until then, it’s Amazon self-publishing and writing for the love of it, not the money.

It’s true that describes quite a lot of writers put there, the ones that burn the midnight oil because they don’t give up their day job, typically the ones that don’t make an adequate living from book sales.

And yet some do.   They are excellent authors, their books are very readable, as good as their number one best-sellers, but can’t quite crack the big time.

These are the people we aspire to become, because those truly wealthy from writing are far and few between.