career or book?

I'm career-minded but not career-focused, if that makes any sense. I know realistically writing is not a stable career choice, particularly since I write genre fiction. However, that doesn't stop me from writing, polishing and submitting as many stories as I feel inclined to do. If they sell, they sell. If they don't, well I still have a roof over my head, so might as well move on to the next one. If it turns into a full-time career someday, hey I won't complain, but if and until that happens, it's a cross between a hobby and a side job for me.

Staying with the same story, stagnating, is almost a fear of mine these days. I chalk this up to having too many friends (and an ex-boyfriend) who not only stick to one book/series, spending years and years and writing almost nothing, but also cram every idea they have into it until the story is a terrible mishmash of everything. And they're almost always also the ones saying they want to be writers and drag themselves into self-doubt, loathing and depression as the years pass and they get no closer to their dreams. Seeing that happen time and again has forced me to be very objective about my own perspective on writing.

JSSchley said:

I'm reading the OP's "book or career" distinction as whether the focus and plan is for many books over a lifetime, not whether or not I plan or hope to live off my writing income someday, because honestly, I don't.

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That's how I took it too. The issue being when someone states a goal of wanting to write many books, but they're stuck on one. It's only that one they edit, query, requery, change the title of so they can query again, so they never get around to writing any of the other books.

Though I've also seen it happen with series, so I'd say it's more only working on one idea, rather than one book. Sometimes the basic idea is pants, and unless the author moves on and gets some distance, they're never going to see that.

JSSchley said:

I'm reading the OP's "book or career" distinction as whether the focus and plan is for many books over a lifetime, not whether or not I plan or hope to live off my writing income someday, because honestly, I don't.

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Polenth said:

That's how I took it too.

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Same.

It's more about long-term attitude toward writing and publishing several books, and learning and growing as a writer along the way, than about the One Big Idea that gets fiddled with ad nauseum.

My career at the moment is being a Dad full time. That being said, I think writing is an amazing mental outlet that keeps the gray-matter fresh. I would love to make some money off it eventually, see my work in print, the usual writer's goals.

Career but my first goal was getting focused. I have a hard time focusing on one idea long enough to finish it. And working on multiple ideas at a time is even harder.

I look at it career-minded now. I have no illusions of being the next Stephen King, Stephanie Meyer, or George RR Martin though.

JoNightshade said:

Both. It was the book I couldn't let go of, the one I kept rewriting and resubbing, that finally got me the agent and the sale. If I hadn't had the passion and the drive for that story, I'd never have pushed myself to learn and grow as much as I did as an author. And that was the book I was convinced NEEDED to be published. If I don't have that commitment to my story, why should anyone read it?

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This is similar to where I am. I don't have millions of ideas clamoring for attention, but I do have a few big ones I'm not willing to let go of. I find the whole notion of "trunking" novels very strange (apart from the ones I wrote in high school). I mean, if I'm so committed to an idea that it makes it to a full-length draft, there's something in there I want to see through to the end.

That said, when I finish my current round of "practice" projects and shift back to the big one (or one of the big ones) it's going to be a total re-write from the ground up.

So, I have these projects, particularly one, that I want published, and if that succeeds (meaning that a good number of people read it), then I'll be happy. I also want a career, and will write other things, some of them mostly for the money.

I'd like to at least have the writing support my reading habit and maybe pay for a trip to a con or two. I'd like to be able to continue the stories of some of the characters I've created, so I'm looking at more than one book. And I want to learn and grow and try all sorts of different genres, just for the fun of it.

Okay, to be honest, it's a total excuse for following my whims and reading about whatever catches my fancy.
"Why are you reading about the social structure of 15th century Venice?"
"It's research. Now go away, before you become a villain and have to be arrested or done away with in a completely humiliating manner."

jcd: But what I'm talking about is whether your aim is one book or many.

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The thing is, how do you know how many books you have in you? I wrote that first novel and thought that was it. And every time I write one I think, All right, that's got to be it, no way can I do that again. I'm flabbergasted by the sheer volume of some writers--thinking of King and Leonard--it just boggles the mind. Meanwhile, I'm thinking, Let's not get crazy. Write this one, make it as good as you can; if it's decent, see where it goes. If I'm lucky, another idea will come to me. So far I've been lucky but as I said, that well could run dry any time. Feels that way anyway. Like one day I'll wake up in Death Valley or whatever, blank parchment in one hand and ink-clogged pen in the other, going, Wha?

aikigypsy said:

This is similar to where I am. I don't have millions of ideas clamoring for attention, but I do have a few big ones I'm not willing to let go of. I find the whole notion of "trunking" novels very strange (apart from the ones I wrote in high school). I mean, if I'm so committed to an idea that it makes it to a full-length draft, there's something in there I want to see through to the end.

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"Trunked" novels are complete. The novel I'm on the verge of trunking (at least for now) has been rejected by every agent in my country and almost every publisher. I either go to agents at another country and start all over again, or I put it away in the trunk, either permanently or for the time being.

What is strange about that? Or does your definition of "trunking" differ from mine?

CaroGirl said:

"Trunked" novels are complete. The novel I'm on the verge of trunking (at least for now) has been rejected by every agent in my country and almost every publisher. I either go to agents at another country and start all over again, or I put it away in the trunk, either permanently or for the time being.

What is strange about that? Or does your definition of "trunking" differ from mine?

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When people say, "trunked," they often say or imply that said projects will never see the light of day again, and, in some cases, that they would be embarrassed by those projects, because their new work is so much better.

I plan to go back to revise the project that got 100-ish rejections (6+ years ago) until it's ready for market, one way or another. That may mean a total rewrite and probably also a different approach to marketing it, or at least a new-and-improved query letter. I'd say it's on hold.

My sense of "trunking" was that it meant a permanent retirement. Maybe I'm wrong about that.
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