Comments on: Literary pretense vs. the life of a working writer

By: SolShine7

SolShine7 — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:22:37 +0000

Great post Ariel, you made some interesting points. I enjoyed reading everyone’s comments too.

When it all comes down to it’s all about a writer’s motives and that’s something only the person and God can truly know. Whatever the case we shouldn’t look down on one another because they chose a different road in the writing field. And like Eleanor Roosevelt said: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” So it’s up to us to define our own worth.

By: MeganEliza

MeganEliza — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:34:47 +0000

Hear hear. I haven’t read all the comments so perhaps this has been said - but it seems to me there is a huge market in selling the romance of writing to those who “would be, if only”. Not to say good things aren’t taught in those workshops, but it seems the majority of people who take them are caught up in the idea of being published and celebrated rather than the idea of writing for a living. For real. Every day. Whether you want to or not.

Granted, not all writing is the same and perhaps not everyone could write for a corporate or government client, or a news client for that matter. But the mooning around about “wanting to write” gets to me after awhile as someone who has had many, “but I don’t want to write that,” moments.

The thing that gets my goat the most? “Oh, you’re a writer? I plan to write after I retire.”

Yeah? Well I plan to take up brain surgery after I retire. That doesn’t require any skill does it? Cause obviously you don’t think writing does either.

Oh. I just got cranky. I should leave it at that.

By: The Anti 9-to-5 Guide » The way freelance writers never were

The Anti 9-to-5 Guide » The way freelance writers never were — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:57:57 +0000

[...] Moral of the story: Freelance publishing rates haven’t gone up in decades. And unfortunately print as we know it is rapidly becoming yesterday’s news. Writers who want to eat need to have at least a couple toes in the digital pool (and depending on how much money they need to make, perhaps a couple more in the copywriting sector). [...]

By: dori

dori — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:24:48 +0000

jeez, i hope i can make it through all the commentary here!

it really all depends on what kind of writer you wanna be - if you want to pay your rent with it, if you simply enjoy the process of writing whether it be copy or how-to guides or whatnot, yep, get in the trenches and DO IT.

i call myself a writer because i write obsessively and always have, ever since i could. i don’t do it for a living, and i don’t care to be fully in the trenches doing it either (travel writers don’t get paid much, but that is probably one of the only trenches besides music journalism i’d probably ever be willing to sink down into). i would, however, like to write a book or two someday, just to day i did it - don’t care if they’re published, but simultaneously, don’t want my name plastered all over some cash-gathering romance, suspense or YA, either.

but again, it’s a choice. there are all sorts of writers and room for all of us.

By: Ariel

Ariel — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:07:31 +0000

Thanks to everyone for your awesome comments.

I wrote this past as a rant and a polemic, and as such it’s full of painful generalizations, strong opinion, and a couple statements that even *I* don’t fully agree with. (Dude: I LOVE big words. It’s about the intent behind their use.)

The goal of this post was discussion, and the goal was achieved! Thanks to everyone for sharing their thoughts on the subject.