As somebody who had literary ambitions in my youth (see here, here, here and here) I occasionally reproach myself for not having seriously pursued a career as a writer. "Maybe if I had just tried, I could have made it," I occasionally lament.
It's funny, I still do this to myself. Even though I've known for years now that the idea of a full time professional writer is a myth. (Whisky Prajer's 2006 post on the subject--itself a reaction to a 2 Blowhards post --made an impression on me at the time.)
...and yet, despite having known this for years, I still catch myself chastising myself for not having tried more. (I blame our school teachers. They gave us the impression that being an author was a real job, and not something people did in addition to having a real job. And because we were so impressionable as children, it's very hard to erase those impressions once they were made.)
Anyway, if further convincing is required, Freddie Deboer lays out the case that writing is at best an unstable side-job, but not a realistic full time job.
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