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- Apr 11, 2012
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If so, for how long? Forever? How 'bout for next to nothing?
Do you love it so much that you think you'll do it no matter what?
I enjoy it, at times I do love it. When it's really working and I read back what I've written and...but let's face it, it's a lot of work. Plus, many of us have to do something else. It's an avocation we'd hope to turn into a job, or as I heard E.L. Doctorow say (posthumously) on Charlie Rose the other night, "It's a calling."
I believe that any art requires that you do have some knack for it. Then it's up to you to develop it--and with that, if you didn't have it at the onset, comes love. Another writer, can't recall his name, but he was a TV writer and producer said (paraphrased)...Everyone's born with a talent. It's your duty to find out what that talent is and to fall in love with it...I believe it was Stephen Cannell.
I think the point is, it takes a lot, a lot of energy, work, time, thought, persistence, ingenuity, etc, not to master ('cause I don't think many if any ever get their arms all the way around an art) but just to reach a viable level of proficiency and "success" whatever that may mean to you. What does success mean to you?
Have many of you achieved moderate success by your definition (readership, sales, reviews, artistic achievement, personal satisfaction) and then had second thoughts? I won't say third thoughts, because then you probably wouldn't be on this board.
Have you gotten to the point of mindless repetition? Meaning you've forgotten why you write? But show up to do it on most days because you sense that it's good for you. I think there is something healthy in it. It's almost like a meditation, ommmm... It occupies a mind that might go somewhere less positive and productive and healthy if it's left to its own device.
Please know that I'm not trying to discourage anyone, and I'm not saying I'm ready to quit (I'm a relative babe in this pursuit) but we're all grownups here. I think it's healthy to know where your bottom is, if only to have something to spring up off of.
Do you love it so much that you think you'll do it no matter what?
I enjoy it, at times I do love it. When it's really working and I read back what I've written and...but let's face it, it's a lot of work. Plus, many of us have to do something else. It's an avocation we'd hope to turn into a job, or as I heard E.L. Doctorow say (posthumously) on Charlie Rose the other night, "It's a calling."
I believe that any art requires that you do have some knack for it. Then it's up to you to develop it--and with that, if you didn't have it at the onset, comes love. Another writer, can't recall his name, but he was a TV writer and producer said (paraphrased)...Everyone's born with a talent. It's your duty to find out what that talent is and to fall in love with it...I believe it was Stephen Cannell.
I think the point is, it takes a lot, a lot of energy, work, time, thought, persistence, ingenuity, etc, not to master ('cause I don't think many if any ever get their arms all the way around an art) but just to reach a viable level of proficiency and "success" whatever that may mean to you. What does success mean to you?
Have many of you achieved moderate success by your definition (readership, sales, reviews, artistic achievement, personal satisfaction) and then had second thoughts? I won't say third thoughts, because then you probably wouldn't be on this board.
Have you gotten to the point of mindless repetition? Meaning you've forgotten why you write? But show up to do it on most days because you sense that it's good for you. I think there is something healthy in it. It's almost like a meditation, ommmm... It occupies a mind that might go somewhere less positive and productive and healthy if it's left to its own device.
Please know that I'm not trying to discourage anyone, and I'm not saying I'm ready to quit (I'm a relative babe in this pursuit) but we're all grownups here. I think it's healthy to know where your bottom is, if only to have something to spring up off of.