My new friend that I do it and my good friend Olivia Ryan has a post on her blog about why she writes. Well no-one has ever asked me why I write but I thought that I would tell you anyway.
I write because I have a story in my head. I do the writing for me. I try to get that writing published for the glory. It's a great feeling when an editor says that they like your writing and want to pay you for the right to publish it.
Olivia writes full time - for a living and she is lucky because that is what she wants. As I have just said in a comment on her blog sometimes I think that is what I want. Then I have a good day at work and I think "Nah." You see I actually have a day job that I enjoy most of the time and I work for something that I believe in which always helps.
I think my writing ideal would be that I earned a decent second living from it. I would like it to put me in the position that if the way that I currently feel about the day job ever changed I would have something to fall back on.
I guess I want the best of both worlds.
However, if it doesn't happen, it's no big deal because like I said, I do the writing for me and I wonder if that would feel the same way if my livlihood depended on it.
2 comments:
Hi Gonna Be: nice to read the continuation of the comments you made on my blog! As I said over there, I agree with what you've said about having a 'day job', and in some ways I do miss mine. As it happens, I've written a feature which will is going to be published in 'Writers' Forum' magazine about this very topic - 'giving up the day job' - looking at the pros and cons. I'll be writing about it on my blog and will let you know as soon as I know which issue it'll be in. But I totally agree with you that there's only one reason for writing - for yourself, and because you enjoy it. I don't earn enough to live on, from writing - very few people do - and I was writing for many years before I got published, just for my own enjoyment. I'd carry on now even if I never got published again. But yes - I enjoy it even MORE now that I'm being paid for it, and that's the truth!
I don't think that you can do it for the money well not only for the money anyway. The money has to be an added bonus. Also from what I hear there aren't many that can earn enough to live on just from writing.
I'm looking forward to reading your article on giving up the day job. It should be interesting.
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