Ever since the day I started getting paid for my writing (most of you on this board weren't born yet...most of the world wasn't born yet) I have found it very difficult to write in the absense of a contract.
Back in the olde amateur days, I was a typing machine, finishing one draft of a novel in the morning and starting the next draft that afternoon. My notebook was always filled with ideas.
Now, I've stopped writing non-fiction books because my previous sales weren't big enough. I figured, if I'm not going to get paid, I may as well write fiction.
But with a novel circulating to agents (who may or may not investigate my track record), I can't summon up the emotional capital to invest in another spec project.
Sometimes I long for those amateur days when it was only about the writing. But then I write a few pages and say, "I don't have time for unpaid work."
Then I'll waste an hour playing Scrabble on the Internet when I certainly could have started a blog in that time.
Truth is, I was looking forward to spending my reclining (declining) years the way I spent my teens and twenties, typing eight hours a day.
Now I think TV and Solitaire might be more appealing.
Back in the olde amateur days, I was a typing machine, finishing one draft of a novel in the morning and starting the next draft that afternoon. My notebook was always filled with ideas.
Now, I've stopped writing non-fiction books because my previous sales weren't big enough. I figured, if I'm not going to get paid, I may as well write fiction.
But with a novel circulating to agents (who may or may not investigate my track record), I can't summon up the emotional capital to invest in another spec project.
Sometimes I long for those amateur days when it was only about the writing. But then I write a few pages and say, "I don't have time for unpaid work."
Then I'll waste an hour playing Scrabble on the Internet when I certainly could have started a blog in that time.
Truth is, I was looking forward to spending my reclining (declining) years the way I spent my teens and twenties, typing eight hours a day.
Now I think TV and Solitaire might be more appealing.