Writing Today is Worthwhile as Never Before

You are out walking with some friends and the subject of what you are doing with your career comes up, and you mention that you are really enjoying writing even though the pay isn't as high as you'd like; yet you feel that someday this might become something promising. Your friends are now looking at you with a kind of curious eye, slanted heads, "oh my, my friend, please tell me your not? Not that?" They stare, and you don't know what to say, because now the cats out of the bag walking along with you.

What is it about writing that brings such disdain from folks? Is it that they mistakenly believe that most artists are starving artists, which would be hard to prove; since most so called artists, may in fact, not be artistic at all. As to starving; it's a rich field in modern press, we might not make a lot of money when starting out, but recently a friend of mine released a self-published e-book to 11,000 people charging them the light amount of 13.95. We did the math on that and it came out to $153,450.00 which is no small amount of money, of course there really isn't any way to determine how much effort went into that writing but we know that whatever the effort it must have netted a goodly profit, even at two years of solid effort that's about $70,000.00 per year; and that, as they say around my parts, "ain' hay brother!"

Stephen King has made so much money in his writing that it seems ridiculous to speak of the times when in frustration he would wad up manuscripts and toss them in the trash. King is generous in his contributions to the "Writers Market" manuals that come out, and he has contributed much to the craft of writing. In his formative years he was an instructor of English, one official bio put it this way: "In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine." [King, 2003] While he was writing and submitting articles, King continued to teach until he received enough contract money on "Carrie" from Doubleday that he could devote himself to writing. He was prepared for his career. Imagine if he'd had the ability back then to self-publish through a system like the Internet? It almost boggles the mind, doesn't it?

So as you continue to wonder if you are in your right mind, about writing; let's just see if there are ways to mitigate that decision from being such a drastic one. Do you really have to starve for your art? What would happen if you began to write ideas out and submit them for publication, so that you began to build up both pen money, and readers who have read your content? In the final truth of it, if what you write is worth reading, the fans will let you know. If what you are writing isn't worth much, your lack of fans will also impress you. Sound familiar, sound like the good product pitch? That's because that is exactly what we are getting at, if your product is good, your talent will come forth, but what brings your talent out more than any other factor, is perspiration, rather than inspiration. Anyone can write without sweat, but the sweat brings such meaning to the art - let your friends wonder about you, sweat through that, to success.

References: King, Tabitha, "Biography, Stephen King," Originally written by Tabitha King, updated by Marsha DeFilippo, viewable on the World Wide Web at: http://www.stephenking.com/biography.php , 2007