Just a quick update that I am now back in the office in San Francisco after quite an incredible week in New York. The meetings! The weather! The food! The general sense of panic in the Financial District!
But as much as I fell in love with New York all over again, man oh man is it good to be back in the land of cool nights and driving to the grocery store. Ah, San Francisco, I thank you.
My Inbox could probably compete with Ben Bernake’s at this point for sheer madness, so I’m afraid the query moratorium is still in effect. And yes, You Tell Me on a Tuesday – I’m going to go Coffee Talk on you and ask that you “talk amongst yourselves.”
I’ll give you a topic. Would you still write if you knew you’d never make a cent doing it? Would it change what you write and how you write?
pillywiggin says
The simple answer to this question is, yes. Yes I would.
Why? Because I’m an escapist, and if I don’t escape reality through writing, I’ll do it through reading (which I do anyway.) I enjoy writing. I enjoy bringing people and places to life, to viewing the world through the eyes of others.
Being published and making money would be all well and good, and is my goal, but it’s not crucial. I started writing when I knee high to a grasshopper, before I even knew what publishing was.
Let’s face it. Sanity suffers when there isn’t writing.
lotusloq says
Welcome back! Your humor and pithy comments have been truly missed. (Sorry, I’m feeling very passive!)
I’ll just jump right on the “I’d write no matter what!” bandwagon. I would probably do more poetry though. I’d also probably just publish to a blog in installments kind of a chapter by chapter thing and that would result in less revision.
Not The Rockefellers says
Absolutely. Because I have to.
Peace – Rene
Liza Knight says
Yes, I too would still write though I would focus on other mediums such as the blog, fanfiction perhaps, and other things that could cure my desire to be creative and share stories with the world.
Anonymous says
Of course. Don’t be ridiculous. We’d all write if we didn’t get paid.
NP says
I’d absolutely keep writing. The only thing that would change would be that I’d focus more on my fiction.
Big Plain V says
Yeah, I’m pretty much there: writing all the time, years on end, no cashout. Good thing I like writing, no?
tamijean says
An intriguing question, and some eye-opening answers!
Yes. Unquestionably.
I would, however, probably not be as ‘good’ at it. As motivated to improve my writing, as prone to agonize over length or pacing.
The possibility of the dream becoming reality pushes me to be a better author – someone whose work is worthy of being paid for and published.
I write because there are stories in my head that I’d like to read and have not yet been written.
I improve myself and my writing because I think other people might want to read those stories, too.
…I also keep my day job. *grins and winks*
naohama says
Yes, I would still write, even as I anm a new commer libyan writer, actualy poet with a manuscript of a poetry collection.
I would still write even if I am a lost writer in a city I know no one in.
I would still write even if no money in the horizon lurking me.
I 4 writing and nothing else.
Candid Carrie says
Lurker unveiled.
Found you via blogs of note, came back on my own free will.
Yes, I would write for free. I wrote for twenty five years just for fun because I had no place to go with any of it.
I wrote dirty poems and gifted them to friends. I made brochures for friends that weren’t dating and told them to do a better job marketing themselves. “Here, hand these out when you meet new people. Sell yourself,” I said with a smile.
I write for fun. I find it more entertaining to be a writer than it is to be a reader. Maybe I am not reading the right stuff.
I write for the reality check and the paycheck. I write for the health of it and for the hell of it.
Also, if I didn’t write I would probably drink. You can’t really make decent money when you are drunk all the time. Well, maybe you could but I couldn’t. At least I don’t think I could. I’ll get back to you on that one.
Jeanie W says
I’d still write even if I knew I’d never get paid for it. But that doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop trying to make a living at it. If I am paid for it, then I can afford to spend more of my time writing.
RachelB says
I’m 98% certain that I will never make a cent writing anyway, so my answer is yes, I would write.
Sam Hranac says
Of course. How many people can actually make a living from writing anymore? Even if the only benefit is improved skill and mental faculties, how can that be a bad thing… particularly when I enjoy the process.
DarkHeart says
Yes; I would write if I weren’t getting paid for it. Actually, that’s what I do now. Blogs, a single parents’ column, submissions to literary journals, collections of poetry, short stories, opinion articles…all gathering dust or making it slowly into the hands of open minds who devour words but don’t have the means for which to pay for them. My life is writing. It is a love affair with words. It is equivalent to breathing. To stop is to die.
nomadshan says
I’d still write, but I’d post everything online — I’d still want to share my stuff.
Steppe says
Long story short: Yes I write for pleasure.
Its like a really awesome drug. A quantum journey through the illusions of existence.
Considering trying to get published has lead me to be more thorough. I like short stories because very few stories are worth
250-500 single space pages. I can tell a good fleshed out story in 10-20 pages easy anyday. OK so I use caricatures and easy to recognize archtypes: why don’t we just go dig up Shakespeare and slap him around a bit.
So considering the idea of trying to get published has caused me to be very considerate of the reader in terms of melody and lyrics of the reading pace. Reviewing and rereading
a novel length piece: at least five times very very very slowly. It hurts but when the piece is finished I know every last page has been scoured for fluidity and ease of reading without resorting to the popular rat ta tat short sentences that became popular.
I think you have to love the story and want it to be a part of your soul permanently. Then link that up with what Scott said above about performance value. The trust of the audience that you are a good guide for experience “X”.
Content + Style + Passion + Professionalism = Good Novel
Thinking about getting published has changed my writing for the better but I would write no matter what. Some ideas occur but once and must be written down. Maybe occasionally they gather together into a real unique synthesis of the same old shite. Thats the prize.
Loren Eaton says
Absitively. After all, it’s what I’m doing now.
Bill Womack says
I’d probably still write, even if nobody wrote me checks. Maybe I’d alter my style a little, experiment, be more “literary”. Then again, maybe not. I could do that now and make about as much as I’ve made to date.
You didn’t mention if we’d still get to have an audience. No money *and* no readers would definitely suck a big one. Would I still get groupies?
Wait, what? I wasn’t going to get those anyway? As a great man once said, “throw me a frickin’ bone here.”
CNU says
Yes and to the second question- No.
-C
AmyB says
I’d still write if I knew I’d never make a cent. But not if I knew I’d never have readers.
Adaora A. says
Chaos indeed. I hope a certain president is aware of the ‘trickle down’ affect that the economy he had a hand in creating is shooting up over here in Canada. My dad described it very well when he said, when US coughs, Canada sneezes.
Onto other things…
Welcome back! Glad to hear you had a great trip. I can only imagine how your inbox is creating threads of panic about you. Sory of like how I feel as I settle into term this university school year. Stuff is piling around me.
Now, onto “you tell me:”
I would definetly still write if I knew I wasn’t going to make a dime. Writing isn’t just about money. In a lot of ways, it’s about purging your thoughts and a keen (if you’re trying to get it published) desire to get you work out there. So most definetly, yes.
Furious D says
That’s pretty much what’s been happening to me lately.
Crystal-Rain Love says
Yes, I would. I wouldn’t be as happy though (-;
We all want to do what we love for a living, and for me that is definitely writing. If only my royalty checks were bigger I could leave the day job behind and be so blissfully cheery!
Whirlochre says
I’m torn.
Yes. But I’d probably end up telling the truth and, ultimately, shooting myself.
No. But I’d probably end up living a lie and, ultimately, shooting myself.
K.S. Clay says
I would still write. I don’t write to make money (although that would be nice). I write because I love stories and I love words and I have something to say. I seek publication because I want to entertain and to touch readers. It’s not money. It’s communication that’s important to me.
Chris says
Absolutely! My husband and I self-published our own book. What an experience! Our next book is going to be, “How To Invest Thousands in the Publishing Industry And Make Hundreds In Return”. ; )
Susan Helene Gottfried says
Welcome home.
And yes. In fact, I’ve been discussing this very subject with two friends today.
I’m lucky enough that I don’t need an income from writing. And, in fact, I’m planning to donate everything above my marketing expenses to a variety of charities.
Brad D. Green says
Well, yes. I don’t get paid now for writing. I work in the literary realm. No one reads that stuff anymore.
Marilyn Peake says
Welcome back, Nathan. Just wondering, as someone has already asked in this thread: Is your question based on financial news you heard in New York?
I’ve been writing for years, and published by small press for five years. I’ve had periods where my books started selling quickly; then distribution channels dried up and I felt like quitting. A few weeks later, I was back to writing my next novel or short story. So I guess, if it ever became impossible to make any money from writing, I would still write. However, I would take longer breaks from it and balance my life better. I would cut back on advertising, though. I spent thousands of dollars and way too much time advertising my books before I truly understood how hard it is to sell small press books in any real quantity, especially when the financial markets are in turmoil. I’ve sold hundreds of copies of my books, even discovered that public and college libraries had my books on their shelves, and still the royalty payments were next to nothing. One other factor would make a difference for me if there would never be any payment: whether or not there were still high quality places to publish, even if they weren’t paying authors. I’m assuming there would be such places because there are quite a few of them now.
Sean Lindsay says
If I knew I would not make a cent, not only would I not write, I would actively encourage others to not write, too.
Wait, I already do that.
“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.” — Samuel Johnson
talon74 says
I would still write. Something at least, even if only for my own amusement. I like telling stories, and writing them down is just one of the many ways available to do so.
Madison says
Writing is in my DNA, so I can’t give it up, whether I make money or not. Right now it’s not, but I’m hoping that wil change. At any rate, I love it too much to quit. And what I write would’t change. I write because I enjoy it and I love it and if you’re doing something that you truly love and enjoy, you CAN’T quit.
Emily says
Well…I write now and I’m not getting paid. I hope to one day be published and make some money but that hope alone is not what drives me. If it was, I probably wouldn’t have spent all the time I have on my current ms.
Then again, if i knew i would absolutely never get a cent…that must mean i would never be published, and to be honest, I would be completely disappointed. But I think I would keep writing. I love writing, and I can’t stop the stories from popping into my head. It might slow me down, because I would need to spend more time working, but i would never stop completely.
Frank Cole says
I would definitely write and it would be different. Less worries about grammar and editing. I’m from the South daggone it. I spelt things differn’t and liked it by golly!
Amy says
I don’t get paid now and write all the time. So I have three responses for you: yes, yes and YES!
Eric says
The short answer: Yes.
The long answer: Yes, but I probably wouldn’t continue to work on novels. I would spend my time on short fiction and poetry, which is what I write primarily (and for which I am usually not paid anyway).
E
Lizz Huerta says
For me it is about the writing, not money or anything else. The one time I actually got a check for something I wrote framed it and put it on my wall.
Writing is what saves my head and heart from imploding. It is my joy and release. It is better than drugs, better than alcohol, and sometimes better than afternoon delight. I have a creative head and I have to write. Better to have a few closets full of unpublished manuscripts, journals and poems than to be crazy or accidentally dead.
A Paperback Writer says
I’ve never yet made a cent writing fiction, so I guess it won’t change much if I never do.
Troy Bierkortte says
Most of us don’t make any money at all from writing, but you know that I know that you know that we really want to.
But, just as so very few are able to earn great wealth – or even make a living – from writing, very few of us expect to.
I make a much better living from my day job than some full-time writers do from writing. I could quit writing and devote the extra time to my job. That would make financial sense. But it isn’t about money. If I could ever earn a living at writing, the best part of that would be that it would free me to write more. It would reconcile my need to eat and my need to write.
But, you rarely see a writer retire from the craft. Dan Brown doesn’t need to make any more money from this trade, but you won’t see him giving it up to play golf, will you.
Maybe the more telling answer will come from the question, “would you still write if you knew you would never need to make a cent?”
cageyb says
Of course.
Kim Haynes says
Simple answer: I don’t make a cent from my fiction writing now, and I still do it. I want to be published to share my ideas and my characters with other people; the money doesn’t enter into that equation.
And welcome back, Nathan! We missed you!
writeidea says
Yes, I’d still write if I knew I wouldn’t make anything. Hey, I haven’t been published yet, I have to say that.
Revisions are harder for me than writing, so if I knew I wouldn’t ever make any money, I’d just write and not revise.
Nikki Duncan says
In a heartbeat! It’s the only way to get the stories and characters living in my head to go away. They make for entertaining dreams, but um a tad disturbing at times.
Welcome back. Glad you had a good trip.
Chris says
I’d still write even if I knew I’d never make a cent, but I’d throw the rules out the window.
Chris
Erik Hedstrom says
Yes I’d still write. I haven’t made a cent yet from my writing. I write to maintain my sanity.
Gina Black says
I would absolutely still write, but I’d probably be more self-indulgent and experimental.
Anonymous says
When I stopped writing nonfiction, I stopped making money. The problem was a simple one — my field was ephemeral and it marched away from me while I was doing something else — such as fiction writing. My fiction collection now exceeds three dozen, and while some of it has sold, most of it has not. So for the rest of my life, and for as long as my children have a guilty conscience, my work will keep the dust off their shelves until they learn — or at least become motivated — to read.
Chris Redding says
Yes, but it wouldn’t be a priority.
cmr
Timothy Fish says
There can be no doubt that writers will write the things we want to write, no matter what, but when writers are writing things that benefit others, they should be fairly commensated for their efforts.
Adam Heine says
Heck, yes. The real question is would I write if I knew nobody would ever read it?
I think I just might. I want to be read, definitely, but I’ve never been able to not write.