Is it the lure of fame? Fortune? An easy life of spinning tales when inspiration strikes? Seeing the country on book tours?
These dreams are fine as long as you continue writing when they don’t materialize. Chances are, they won’t.
Sorry. Statistically speaking, you probably won’t be the next James Patterson. (My chances are equally dim. I realize this.)
In fact, most authors typically earn around $6,000 per year. The average income, including superstars like Patterson, Stephen King and J.K. Rowling, is just under $25,000. Hence, the reason that most writers have day jobs.
Still with me?
Good.
That means you’re not in this plight because you harbor grand delusions. Instead, you’ve likely been afflicted with some sadistic impulse to bear your soul for public ridicule – if you can find anyone willing to read the words you’ve painstakingly cobbled together.
This form of mental insanity is fine. It’s actually… excellent. Because you ultimately derive satisfaction from the work itself (which you control) and not from others’ reactions (which, alas, you cannot control).
Personally, I take pleasure in the work itself, seeing the pages that I’ve filled, reveling in a productive writing session. However, when I consider the quality of that output in terms of commercial publication prospects, the despair sinks in, and I wonder why I bother.
These are not happy thoughts, and this negativity has the powerful ability to sap my motivation and send me from my notebook to the blank gaze of the television. My failure to write then sends me into an even deeper funk.
Until I remember my true audience: not millions – or even a half-dozen – admiring fans who love me and my work. Just myself. And that’s enough.
So I ask once more, why are you writing?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I write because my stories amuse my family and a few friends.
But on a grander scale I write because one story or even the line from one story can change someone’s life.
eg. “I had a dream…”
A few words that still resonate today..
Who knows when the one thing that you write may stick with someone and alter their life for the better..
Maybe it just alters your own life and helps you understand yourself.
What a beautiful sentiment, one with which I agree wholeheartedly. If we change just one person – even, or perhaps especially, ourselves – then the effort has been worthwhile.
Thus far, that’s been my motto: If just one person is interested in reading, then I’m up for writing. So far, that person has mostly been me. And that’s okay.
Do you ever feel the need to give yourself pep talks to keep up the momentum? Or are you perfectly content to write, without letting thoughts of publication and/or commercial success (or failure) cloud the picture?
At times I think we all need pep talks. Especially when we write something that we think is insightful or great in some way and no one either gets it or responds..
For me, every once in a while someone has got a point I was trying to make and it inspired me to continue writing.
I remember a post I wrote on a previous incarceration of my site that received 49 comments all related to the joke part of it and 1 comment from a reader that just said “Brilliant point.”
That comment inspired me. And it also made me realize that words can have an impact. Often in ways that we don’t realize..
I’m not trying to achieve commercial success so that doesn’t really matter to me. At some point I would like to expand my audience (probably after I have one, ha,ha.) using podcasting and videocasting media. I am still looking for the right people to partner with on these aspects.
And I would like to publish some of the stories..
I started writing more formally after emails I wrote to family or friends got a good reception. Somehow, I was able to convey my wittier self in the written word that I wasn’t able to do in the vocal one. I think writing gives you time to choose just the right words and edit and re-edit until it’s what you meant for it to be.
I write mostly for myself, but it spurs me on when someone else takes the time to read and comment on what I’ve written.
Methinks I see a common theme here. Writing for oneself and not for commercial success is definitely better motivation because doggedly pursuing the latter will suck you dry of all creative impulses and leave your belly empty.
Still, you both acknowledge that writing in a vacuum isn’t as rewarding as when that writing touches at least one other person, which brings us to the beauty of this modern age of blogging and citizen journalism. Technology has now made it easier than ever for people to publish and to connect with strangers across the country or around the globe.
Would you say that these public platforms have encouraged you to write more? Or would you still write as often as you do, even if the distribution were limited to your immediate circle of family and friends?
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