Ever wondered what is the hardest occupation you can take on? Brick layer, Lumberjack or Roustabout maybe? None of these.
While the aforementioned occupations are physically dangerous, writing leaves all others in its wake. To be a writer you need a hide thicker than a rhinoceros, mixed with a grim determination to carry on despite everything. Very few of us actually make a living out of it. Most of us sit in the doldrums, fortunate indeed if just a handful of inquisitive readers wish to sample our work.
There is no magic formula for success in the writing game, unless of course, you are a so-called celebrity. Then the public will lap up anything with your name on it, no matter how vacuous you may be, which says it all about the public’s current taste. Sadly these days well written works of fiction sit on the shelves, be they the physical or electronic kind, largely unread.
The only way things will change is when the reading public grow tired of celebrities, and want to read something worthwhile. It makes little difference what genre you write in. If you are largely unknown, given the current mania for ‘shallow’, you will remain so.
If you have an uncontrollable urge to write, do so. Just don’t delude yourself into thinking that taking up writing will bring you fame and fortune – it won’t unless you are the next Dan Brown or J.K Rowling in waiting. What it will do however, is to boost your own sense of self worth. It will give you an enormous amount of satisfaction, especially when you see the product of all your hard work finally in print.
Want my advice – go for it…
I agree, Jack. I get great satisfaction knowing my followers are reading my stories. I never deluded myself into thinking it would make me rich, I am happy with a few sales and keeping the readers happy 🙂
Until you have spent a few years hammering away on characters and plots and concepts, sweating even the smallest details you will never know the satisfaction of seeing a completed work…by YOU.
Good? Bad? Many people will tell you that can’t be determined by you but by those that read it. Song writers and singers have had their biggest hits on things they hated when they did them. Billy Ray’s ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ comes to mind.
Give it your best efforts and write for yourself. If the luck of the Irish is with you there may be a pot of gold at the rainbows end, but don’t count on it.