I don't buy that many writers can only write for a couple of hours before their brains turn to mush. If so, they couldn't handle most day jobs, either. Even if so, write more and you grow the right muscles to get over it.
But how many hours per day does it take to write full-time? I have written all day, every day for extended periods, but for the most part, I write five hours per day, five days per week. I know a triple handful of full-time pro writers who never write more than four hours per day. If you're actually writing, you can get a lot of words down in four hours. I know one full-time writer who treats writing like a nine to five job for six months, and then takes six months off.
But there are a ton of writers who do write eight hours or more each day because they want to do so. This includes some very rich writers who don't have to write anything. Dean Koontz probably leads the pack. he typically puts in seventy hour weeks, even though he doesn't have to write at all.
They love writing. If you don't love the process, why would you want to write at all? If you do love it, your brain is incredibly unlikely to turn to mush after a couple of hours. Writings is no more draining than any other profession where thought is a major part of the process, and I've met and read about a library full of people who work eighteen hours per day at intellectual jobs because they love the work.
I think you have the same misconceptions far too many who haven't written for a living hold. Writers who write full time still let passion be their guide, they still write what they want to write, when they want to write it. When this includes very long hours, like Dean Koontz, it's usually because they'd rather spend their time writing than doing anything else.
Why is it so hard to understand that being a full-time writer changes nothing? I don't work in a factory where I have a quot to fill, I write so many words per day because a writer writes, and I love the process of writing.
But it's this paragraph that's telling.
I don't know about you guys, but when I fell in love with storytelling and writing in my formative years, I never once thought, "I can't wait to spend my days stressing about whether I've hit my designated word-count for the day, then dive into the daily self-promotion/marketing shuffle via social-media, and end the day by thinking long and hard about how I can push more books out faster so I can build a bigger fanbase that will generate more income.Do you really think being a full-time writer has anything whatsoever to do with what you've written here? If it does, that write is not very bright, and probably can't earn a living as a writer, anyway.
That's the view of someone who's never been there and done that. That's just NOT how it is. You're so far off base that a blind man could find the bag and get you out before you got back to it. Not one sentence of it is anywhere close to the truth of how it is to write full-time. It's so far off base that it's pretty darned close to being insulting.
Full-time writer do not love writing less than you do. Full-time writers do not spend their days stressing about hit8uing a word count. We try to hit a word count simply because if you don't, you aren't a writer, you;re just someone who talks about being a writer, and because we love to write, and we love to finsh one thing and start another because we love to write. Did I mention that we love to write. It's true. We love to write. Not talking about it, not acting like it, but actually sitting down and doing it.
We sure as hell don't end our days thinking long and hard about how we can push more books out faster so we can build a bigger fanbase that will generate more income. This is not only nonsense, it really is insulting. It's just plain BS.
We are doing what we love to do, and many of us are making very good money at it. You can keep your investments, your living modestly, and whatever you did for a living. I wouldn't enjoy any of it, and wouldn't live that way. As a writer, I've never had to.
Why is it so hard to understand that we're simply doing what we truly love to do, that we're enjoying our lives, our writing, and everything else more than you seem to be enjoying your own. We are not slaves to publishers, we do NOT spend time thinking for a second about cranking out books to build anything, we simply write what we want, when we want.
The only difference is that we actually do write, and we actually do sell what we write. I don't care why you fell in love with storytelling, the question is are you actually telling stories on a regular basis because you LOVE telling stories. This is what we do.
The writing life is simply nothing whatsoever like you seem to think it is, and full-time writers are nothing whatsoever like you seem to think they are.
