So you want to be a writer

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the world is full of discouragement like the above link. Writing will not make you your fortune. Why do we do it?

Because it liberates our spirits and refreshes our imaginations, because there are voices that are not your own speaking inside of your mind, and because sometimes a story does not wait patiently. Sometimes a story demands.

Just a jolt of inspiration and motivation. Keep writing.

edited 12th Apr '11 12:13:03 PM by OriDoodle

Mostly, we write because we have to; because getting these stories out of ourselves is what we need to do. Because the pleasure and agony of doing it is something we can't do without.

I write because my characters are also my old friends. By writing them down I give them physical form and let others in on the crazy stuff they do. That, and I find it fun and rewarding.

Do what you love and you won't work ever again.

Honestly writing just to become rich and popular is an unrealistic expectation. Because it depends on pleasing others and doing what others want and not what you want.

However writting for the simple reason of loving what you do and always seeking to improve and striving to do super quality works. That is a realistic espectation ( because it doesnt depend on what others want on the contrary it helps to express your soul).After that If you become rich and famous for doing what you love. That is a great perk. But it shouldn't be the main goal.

edited 12th Apr '11 2:40:32 PM by FallenLegend

Tell that to JK Rowling or Rumiko Takahashi to name contemporary successes in the era of Internet.

I didn't said that ...

I said making a fortune as main goal is an unrealistic expectation. As a probable perk it isn't.

As Edgar Allan Poe and Even Shakespeare could tell.. Or

1. Aldous Huxley
2. John Steinbeck
3. William Golding
4. Tolkien... ( he was hated initially)

edited 12th Apr '11 3:02:59 PM by FallenLegend

You can make a fortune as a creator. You shouldn't count on it.

that's exactly what I meant :)

You can make a living at writing. Writing is a passion, sure, but is's also a job in that people do make money at it. Almost no authors get as fabulously wealthy as JKR, but then almost no entrepreneurs become as rich as Donald Trump. doesn't mean they don't make moolah and enjoy what they do.

One problem is the people you're around. I volunteer at the library, and every time I put books on the book sale shelf, I am always sorting number #1 sellers, people I've never heard of.

There are far more niche's in the book industry than I think people realize.

I found this humorous, Not that any of those apply to me.

@AHR: that's certainly the case. The fiction marketplace doesn't consist solely of mainstream literary and whatever genre fiction we like. There's a lot of niches out there.

I know someone from a writer's group who is a published and successful author of sports romances. That's apparently a niche big enough to pay the bills. Mostly hockey romances. I had no clue there was a market for that. Alas, I believe they're heterosexual; I'd probably read the gay version a lot more keenly.

Of course, I want to publish a graphic novel series, and if there is a niche for that, it's probably much more miniscule than a niche for books...

Probably, but the flipside is that if you find a niche that hasn't got much fiction, they may seize your work and buy the crap out of it.

edited 12th Apr '11 6:11:02 PM by Morven

I read an interview of an author a few weeks ago who said that getting published isn't as unattainable as some people think it is. I never thought about there being a niche factor...that's really interesting.

This is good news for my young adult romantic vampire detective thriller nonfiction gardening self-help series.

If you produce publishable-quality work, then you'll get published. It won't necessarily be immediately, but the idea some people have that getting published is essentially a lottery is untrue. Luck does play some part of it, mostly to do with whether what you've written is over-stocked or not, but skill and effort are most of it.

After I have been thinking a lot, i've realized ive been aiming too much at trying to get 'good' in other people's eyes and just writing for the hell of it. I miss how I used to just write for pleasure alone, now I am always wondering what people will think of my work.

Yeah, while it's good to have some concern for your writing quality, you need to be able to turn that off when it doesn't serve you. Especially, don't do it while writing first draft. Even after that, you need to concentrate on writing better for yourself; paranoia about reception doesn't help nearly so much as concern for quality, I think.

Of course, since most people are not part of a niche, they read mainstream/glutted stuff, and thus desire to WRITE about mainstream/glutted stuff. So there is that problem with banking on nicheness.

Or at least, that's the way it turned out for me. Can't say if it accurately applies to most of ya.

Then again, I suppose TV Tropes is a niche in and of itself.

edited 13th Apr '11 3:20:48 AM by MrAHR

You could apply that same flow chart with a little bit of modification to acting, and really anything in the various "creative" industries.

But books don't require a budget or something that requires a mainstream view to pass it.

It could be applied to art, very easily.

I'll be more than satisfied if I can make a living wage.

Personally, I write entirely for my own amusement. I'm far too thin-skinned to either want or try to get published, plus in my chosen career I'll be quite busy enough.