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Wow, tompe for the win! I think he just summarized it better than I've been able to describe it. Which is ironic given how much tech writing I do, and the amount of explaining that comes with that. And I fully agree with him. In the places where people do their work because they love it, they do a much better job than those who are only in it for the money.
Yes, HarryT, I understand that it's just viewed as a product these days, but just like any artisan or craftsman, you either do it strictly for the money, or because you love what you do. So people who do it because they love it will always produce better quality stuff. Once you stop loving what you're doing, your quality goes down. And if you never really loved it to begin with, your quality will not be there in the first place.
It's one of the reasons why I keep trying to come up with new ideas, fresh stories, unique characters, etc to keep each new book fresh. Yes, I have a few commonly recurring character types (the jerkwad jack*** for one) which I think work well in quite a number of my books, but I in turn try to make each of them unique, even if their personality type is somewhat cliche. And no, I don't think this is some higher calling. But you still should love what you do.
But I guess if some people want to see a book as nothing more than a bunch of words slapped together to create a story, then so be it. To me, when I read a book, these worlds literally come alive. And if a book is poorly written, at least to me anyways, it becomes worse than a visit to the dentist.
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