Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
I guess I'll have to take Ms. Fancher's side of the discussion.
One doesn't be creative on a schedule. And real life tends to intrude on creative processes, and if you're doing x you can't be doing y.
As a corporate drone (mainframe computer programmer) for 25+ years, I made an awful lot of money not being creative. That was somebody else's job. Mine was to just convert the creative ideas into machine logic and correct the logical errors and go back to the creative types to sort out their logical inconsistencies. Making money and being creative are two different things.
Anybody can do the drudge work in life. Being able to do the creative stuff is a lot rarer.
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Yes, indeed. My one true and secret wish has always been to be an author, both in the sense of being able to produce unique, compelling, and creative work and in the practical sense of being able to make a good living at it. I did not have the talent to realize either. So I made a good living by becoming an engineer instead.
To be fair, and returning to the main thread topic, while I was working as an engineer at the start of each days labor I new I would be paid in full for it. Not so for an author. To some extent this has always been true. The author must wonder: "When done will my work be one that a publisher will publish and that enough people will buy so that I will be able live off the income made."
E-books and the Internet add a new question: "How many will pay to read my work versus how many will download it, read and enjoy it, but never pay for it; presuming a certain sum total that will find my work worthwhile. "