What kind of idiot...

wants to be a writer?

http://blog.newfiction.com/want-to-be-a-write/

The comment by rabbit was good too. No mention was made of how many of those books were self published.

I always knew I was an idiot!

But exactly what kind I am escapes me.

In sales it was common to hear: "Those who can't sell, teach."
Could that be happening with writing?

NOT MY KIND! I am shouting for emphasis.

I would rather dig a ditch--except for my bad back.

Would prefer to make a speech--except for my bad voice.

I would rather climb a mountian--except for my bad balance and impaired walking ability.

I would rather die than write a book.

Do not encourage me to write a book.

I hate writing books--with a hatred that is deeper than Dick has for brocolli and cats.

I love writers--hate writing with all of my being.

The only reason I began a book was to entertain Lane.

Here we were two old happily married folks who ran away from a chat group and needed something to talk about.

He loved writing and encouraged me to write. The book was great--it was the Fun Times. It was nonfiction and hilarious. Lucky for you all I quit. It would have eclipsed anything and made all of your efforts look like tripe.

A TRUE IDIOT

Abe F. March wrote:

In sales it was common to hear: "Those who can't sell, teach."
Could that be happening with writing?

No

Ann

Alice wrote:

It would have eclipsed anything and made all of your efforts look like tripe.

We can manage that alone.

I don't think so, Shelagh, but I can always alledge how great it would have been.

I can do that as well! The brilliant sequel to Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine has been at the writing stage for four years!

Brilliant We are saving room at the top for more deserving, hardworking authors.

Someone has to give way.

Quote :

The brilliant sequel to Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine has been at the writing stage for four years!

As has Ailcy's Legacy. I'm determined to get it right.

Ann

The Virgin Odyssey was started right after Arirang: The Bamboo Connection was published in September 2006. I recently finished the final edit for the Orchid Ghost. Oops - and The Virgin Odyssey? Still a collection of fascinating characters ready to sail the high seas to the Virgin Islands in their respective sailing vessels. They just haven't set sail yet...............I have about 50,000 words of character backstories, a plot, and a plan. I just can't get them on their yachts and off to sea.....

I just finished rewriting two books I've been working on since 2005.

My daughter is going to transcribe our cabin journals and I am editing them, which will be a Christmas book for family and friends.

My next great-grandmother book is taking place within my mind. I saw an author on TV the other night who wrote a great-grandmother book and said when she went to Ireland and stood where her great-grandmother did, she came alive. Perhaps when I go to England with Alice. The only sad part is this woman lived in Illinois.

Then there is My Boring Life. That has about 4000 words since 2006.

I have tons of stuff for the Medal of Honor book.

And I need to finish the stories for the contests I vowed I would enter.

Maybe I should take up cooking or baking or running or something.

Carol

When a writer asks what kind of idiot wants to be a writer, I wonder if s/he is crazy or is protesting too much.

I can play the game either way, but it's still a game. I can admit that I'm weird and crazy. When I do that, I might be getting a jump on those who think I'm weird and crazy but who don't think I realize it. Or, the admission might be a call for help, a request for validation, where people come out of the woodwork and tell me I'm not crazy and/or an idiot.

I can say that I'm sane and that my work as a writer on a salary at this company and that proves I'm sane. I know that it's often crazy to state one is sane and that anyone sane enough to see he is crazy probably isn't. If I say I'm sane, then people start wondering if I'm egotistical, for why else would one sit in a den and type stuff while his or her family could definitely stand to have money rolling in from an activity that pays the bills.

It's a catch 22. I don't know if it's better to say one's an idiot and scare people away who are frightened of idiots, or better to say one is not an idiot and scare away all the people who are frightened of people who aren't earning more money than most writers are earning.

It's a puzzlement and how I feel about being an idiot or being sane is linked to the rising and falling of tides--I'm certain of that.

Malcolm

Malcolm,

That was a fantastic piece of writing!!

Carol

The article was a non-sequitor to the title. He asks "what idiot wants to be a writer?" then follows it up with this:

<< ...And yet, more books were published last year than ever. Clearly, somebody is still reading the damn things. >>

Doesn't that answer his question? I guess it was rhetorical.

As for his rant about the number of writing schools, that applies to many fields. When a lot of people are interested in something, and there's a relatively low bar to it, there will be lots of programs to accommodate them. Not all those programs will be good; diploma mills abound. So? What's his point? Oh ...to write a filler article, which he was probably paid $5 for. Who's the idiot?

"some 822 degree-granting creative writing programs for undergraduates
and grad students clutter the curricula of American schools, according
the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, which supports and
monitors the higher-ed lit farms. (In 1975, there were seventy-nine.)"

Academic institutions develop courses to attract students. In recent years, the number of applications for University places to study the pure sciences (maths, physics, chemistry) has plummeted. During the same period, the number of applications to study social sciences, computer studies, media studies and sports related subjects has risen dramatically.

In institutions of further education, the number of applications for studying plumbing, electricity and joinery has declined drastically.

Nowadays, a plumber or electrician is paid more on an hourly rate than many professional people because of the shortage created by offering courses at universities/colleges to attract those students who would normally study a trade.

So, the idiot is the person who wants to do something that everybody else wants to do. When any area of expertise is taken over by too many chasing too few opportunities, hourly rates of pay go down. In today's climate, being a writer will not earn you much more than being a supermarket worker. Only an idiot would chose to do something that paid so little if s/he were capable of earning a living doing something else.

Dick has escaped. When he worked as a journalist, he earned a decent living wage. Today, things have changed.

Shelagh wrote:

"Academic institutions develop courses to attract students. In recent years, the number of applications for University places to study the pure sciences (maths, physics, chemistry) has plummeted. During the same period, the number of applications to study social sciences, computer studies, media studies and sports related subjects has risen dramatically.

Would this be because we're turning into a nation of idiots? I don't see the relationship between idiots wanting to be writers, specifically.

Shelagh wrote:

"some 822 degree-granting creative writing programs for undergraduates
and grad students clutter the curricula of American schools, according
the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, which supports and
monitors the higher-ed lit farms. (In 1975, there were seventy-nine.)"

Academic institutions develop courses to attract students. In recent years, the number of applications for University places to study the pure sciences (maths, physics, chemistry) has plummeted. During the same period, the number of applications to study social sciences, computer studies, media studies and sports related subjects has risen dramatically.

In institutions of further education, the number of applications for studying plumbing, electricity and joinery has declined drastically.

Nowadays, a plumber or electrician is paid more on an hourly rate than many professional people because of the shortage created by offering courses at universities/colleges to attract those students who would normally study a trade.

So, the idiot is the person who wants to do something that everybody else wants to do. When any area of expertise is taken over by too many chasing too few opportunities, hourly rates of pay go down. In today's climate, being a writer will not earn you much more than being a supermarket worker. Only an idiot would chose to do something that paid so little if they were capapble of earning a living doing something else.

Dick has escaped. When he worked as a journalist, he earned a decent living wage. Today, things have changed.

Truer words were never spoken.

<< In today's climate, being a writer will not earn you much more than being a supermarket worker. >>

Well, this is a meaningless statement to me. What does "being a writer" mean? Who are the writers referenced? There are plenty of employed corporate writers (isn't Malcolm one?); the government hires lots of technical writers. They earn good livings.

We've discussed here how few people can write fiction or topics just of interest to them full time. But part-time, as supplemental income to a job? It's not far-fetched, and it's hardly just "idiots" who seek to do it.

Thanks, Carol.

(Stepping away from fiction and poetry, I've been employed as a writer for years. I probably didn't earn what a good electrician earns, much less an electrical engineer. But that doesn't matter. It's a matter of what matches my skills and temperament.)

Malcolm

<< When any area of expertise is taken over my too many chasing too few opportunities, hourly rates of pay go down. >>

Ok, so along those lines:

What kind of idiot would want to be a Web designer? An IT specialist? A graphic artist? Etc...

Someone who wants to enter a crowded field and creatively beats the odds would actually be quite smart, not an idiot.

It's meaningless, LC, to talk about rates of pay in previous years. It is meaningful to discuss the current and future trends:

"Most managements, if not editors, would be very pleased to see entire
newspapers filled by keen-as-mustard-and totally inexperienced young
people who would probably pay to get their by-line in, and don't know what they ought
to be paid. If that happens, no-one with experience will be able to
afford to stay in journalism. The evidence is that it is happening:
many publications are paying freelance journalists less than they did
five years ago. This is not good for journalism, and it's not good for
a public which depends on experienced journalists to keep it and its decisions informed."

http://www.londonfreelance.org/rates/

Shelagh wrote:

"Most managements, if not editors, would be very pleased to see entirenewspapers filled by keen-as-mustard-and totally inexperienced young people who would probably pay to get their by-line in

Sure, because the same "management" made the decision a few years ago to throw their whole paper online for free. How can they afford to pay their writers on that model?

What kind of idiot is a newspaper manager?