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I Can Quit Any Time
By Dave Klecha | November 20, 2006
Sean Lindsay has created a blog called 101 Reasons to Stop Writing and, if you haven’t heard of him yet, evidently you don’t keep up on the science fiction writers-and-aspirants internet subculture, since it’s been tossed about quite a bit, there.
Lindsay argues from a position of one who is sick of all the bad literature out there and wants you to stop. Yes, he means you and no you’re not the exception you think you are. (Unless, of course, you do get published and he enjoys your book, in which case, keep right on trucking.) The odds are against you, your talent is against you, and your ignorance is against you. So take up macrame, for Sean’s sake.
To my mind, the blog’s a sort of “How To Suck” contra-how-to on writing. I mean, I’m sure Mr. Lindsay’s perfectly serious about making people stop writing and discouraging as many as possible from even trying, but at the root, he’s a reader who is providing reader reaction in a humorous and engaging way. And I don’t think that sort of criticism is ever useless to the writer who has concrete goals and a realistic vision of their chances.
On the other hand, Lindsay’s response also calls into question what the “publishing world” actually is and how people perceive it. According to his Hierarchy of Authors, Part One, “success” is achieved only by reaching a selling status that rates a publicist, of which there are precious few, though even some (many?) of them are disdained by this faction or that as crap. In fact, success for most writers occurs at a much lower threshhold and a number of them have made a living at it without becoming household names.
The key to that, though, I’m discovering is diversification. When I was 16 and dreamed of becoming a science fiction novelist, I assumed that I would have to write well enough and sell well enough to have the books themselves support me, or else I’d have to have a “real job” to fall back on. I was stuck in that mindset for years, even after I learned the disheartening truths of what the median earnings were for science fiction novels. I’d have to write more than five novels a year to make sure I earned as much or more than I do now, and I’m very much not at the peak of my earning power in my “day job.”
The mistake I had made was in disdaining journalism, and other “working writing” career paths as being, well, not science fiction. But, like actors who are not on the A list learn, being a working writer often means doing what it takes to keep writing so as to keep the food on the table. I’d always thought that meant having the dreaded and pedestrian “day job” on which to fall back, but now I’m not so sure.
Continued in: “I Can Quit Any Time, Pt. 2″
Topics: life, writing | 2 Comments »
December 27th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
spot on
October 28th, 2007 at 6:01 am
[...] Midnight Highways: “if you haven’t heard of him yet, evidently you don’t keep up on the science fiction writers-and-aspirants Internet subculture.” Ye gods and nanotechnology, if I had to rely on that demographic … [...]