Go to The Impossibility Of Knowing
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Live off the fruit of the earth and raise your daughter in a tent like the days of old... she'll be sure to hate you for it.
posted by
cmoe
on November 18, 2005 at 12:25 PM
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Novelvision2020, I think we need to perceive that we are in a place of safety although sometimes with writing and creativity we need to push ourselves beyond the limit. In my writing work I need the place of safety and the $$ that go with it but for the creative writing that should be less important and yet it's not
posted by
Azur
on November 18, 2005 at 10:02 AM
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PS, MayB,
The reason your post got so many comments is because cash is alway important to most of us, more than we often wish to admit. And if I might come down with a small case of sententious-itis: In the words of George Bernhard Shaw: "It takes a certain amount of money to be moral."
posted by
Novelvision2020
on November 18, 2005 at 6:44 AM
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For me to write well,
I have to have a place of safety in my mind. Sometimes this requires money and sometimes it doesn't. What makes the mind safe one day may be a little different the next day. --And on the issue of "selling out." >>Pleeaze, don't run it past me now! But, some editor at some nice big publishing house, I'll sit still if you want --while you make me an ethically unacceptable offer. You, know... ...just out of curiosity and something else to write about -- purist that I am.
posted by
Novelvision2020
on November 18, 2005 at 6:35 AM
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It's amazing when a post (of mine) generates so many excellent comments. I need to give the time that it requires to responding
posted by
Azur
on November 14, 2005 at 12:42 PM
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Personally....
I write more as a release. I can't NOT write. It would be great if I could make money off of it and sometimes I ask myself why I don't try harder to finish a book or send away my pieces to magazines, etc, but generally speaking it's more of a hobby. It will probably always be a hobby for me because I don't want it bad enough. My goals and dreams are within a different area of my life. Making it "big" as a writer (or even making an income) would just be a bonus. : )
A.Winters
posted by
A.Winters
on November 14, 2005 at 9:17 AM
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Please I am so sorry for acknowledging your comments. I think you do know already know why.Labours does not have negative impacts only on immigrants as you rightly mention. It has more adverse effects on those who create those jobs, because it is very difficult to set up a firm in France just as it is almost impossible to quit because of the stranglehold of the Communist style trade Unions.
posted by
Flame-thrower
on November 14, 2005 at 8:34 AM
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>:-} money's only paper, but then again...
a financial situation in which basic needs can't be met vs. being tied up with a 'regular' job that drains all your energy.
As for the self-discipline, wouldn't working a full time job and 'making time' on the side to do some writing in one's spare time would take as much 'self-discipline' as being 'self-employed' - if not more, wouldn't it?
just some thoughts. I have family obligations, so don't have the liberty to say, ah, screw it... if i loose on this one i can live under a bridge... 
posted by
wiserabbit
on November 14, 2005 at 4:56 AM
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MayB
A friend commented once when I told him I wanted to be a journalist “you’d better study history, sociology and psychology so you have the proper perspective to analyze the news.” Well, being successful in journalism also means moving to New York or Los Angeles and going big time if you want to make decent money or so was my attitude. I didn't have the confidence to do that.
One’s writing rings true if the perspective is one from the ground, not from an Ivory Tower. The inspiration for many of my blogs comes from my interactions with people and situations I have to deal with at work, in my family and my marriage. While I would love nothing more than to be a full time writer, I wonder if that were that case would I be able to maintain that perspective, or would I think of myself of some “hot stuff” writer that knew everything?
A very interesting question you have posed.
posted by
food4thought
on November 13, 2005 at 11:35 PM
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I feel that most of the writers
who have "the life" that you imagine struggled with a full-time job while working on the other project in their free time.
posted by
Joe_Love
on November 13, 2005 at 8:38 PM
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MayB
Some authors take years to write a great novel. It shouldn't come down to a competion between job and writing. Most of us have to have a job. From what I understand you are a great teacher( I read you more than you think).. but in order to write you must set some time aside and say " This is my time to write" give yourself some time and let the words flow. With your talent you will no doubt be a fine success story!
posted by
Offy
on November 13, 2005 at 6:39 PM
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Flame-thrower, yes the labor laws in France impact not only on the immigrants I believe
posted by
Azur
on November 13, 2005 at 4:57 PM
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Your observation is quite correct. But if labour rules in France were more free, perhaps more jobs would have been created to asorb all the immigrants in need of jobs.
posted by
Flame-thrower
on November 13, 2005 at 2:36 PM
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ive thought of those very things many times myself
good post.
posted by
mikebrown
on November 13, 2005 at 12:07 PM
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I think that writers
should be able to just write. That is a gift we believe we have and one which surely should form not only the conrnerstones of our lives but every waking moment as well? I've spent recent years worrying about all of this, thinking (as I am at the moment) why am I going to travel a hundred miles tomorrow to sit in a meeting with people less intelligent than me, who I don't trust and doing a job I think I might be bored with. The answer though is for money; for financial security and our children's hopes for the future. I may not like it and I do resent it but I believe that my time will come and I treat each day as valuable experience and great subject matter for when I really can just write. That feeling of expressing myself in words isn't going to go away in the meantime and I don't want my children growing up without me - I vowed that work would never come between them and me but, ironically, worrying about whether I'm ever going to make it as a writer or not can have exactly the same effect. I'm not prepared for that to happen. Maybe I just don't want it enough?
posted by
malcolm
on November 13, 2005 at 11:48 AM
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MayB,
in the end it always comes down to $ or €! As much as I would like to just write and do nothing else, I can't. I have responsibilites, not only to myself but also to my mother. She is in a nursing home and needs constant care. If I quit my job, I would not be able to look after my mother anymore. So unfortunately, yes, it only comes down to money!
posted by
Nickie-Fleming
on November 13, 2005 at 11:01 AM
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Money buys the time to write. That's my feeling.
posted by
_dave_says_ack_
on November 13, 2005 at 9:15 AM
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MayB
It is a tough choice to make. for some the choice is easy because they have other sources of income from a spouse or partner that makes it more stable. As the years go by soon my own time to choose will be here and I will have to ask myself if I want to do what I love and try to make a living at it, or work to live and try to fit the writing in some how.
Sadly the realities of our world are that we need money to live, and pay the bills and feed and clothe our children. The pressure to make money writing can make the writing nearly impossible.
Good Luck, I know you will make the right choice for you.
posted by
MerryAnne
on November 13, 2005 at 6:54 AM
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MayB
What I've discovered is that I can be a writer who works. I'm a paramedic, sure enough, but my focus is on my writing.
posted by
avant-garde
on November 13, 2005 at 6:15 AM
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Good post, good questions. I think some of us shift in and out of these
positions so that sometimes we work for money because we have to. During such times, we may write things that don't interest us, but they pay the bills...other times we're committed to projects with more integrity and that mean more to us. I don't think either is good or bad...I just believe in being practical and doing both, if you can.
posted by
Ariala
on November 13, 2005 at 5:55 AM
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Have a beautiful...
Sunday...wishing you all the best
posted by
Marshallengraved
on November 13, 2005 at 4:55 AM
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