I've had people pay me to make them a quilt, which I do normally as a work of love and for fun and creative expression. Honestly, it felt totally different... too much stress and not filled with the joy and love that usually accompanies such projects. Now, I'll only do it for pay only under very limited conditions.
Writing is the same sort of thing. You... and I as well... write because there is something that needs to be written... an idea, a character, a situation, a random bit of dialogue. They burrow in our brains and bug us until we sit down and DO what is needed to get it out on paper. And it is true that we want others to read it: for feedback, for encouragement, for... whatever.
Who cares, ultimately, if we get paid for it? It feeds our souls to enter and exercise in the realm of our creativity. We're lucky we have real life work to pay the bills and time enough to play in our imaginations.
I don't mean to say that I wouldn't accept payment if it came my way. I'd gobble it up! I just don't want to refrain from publishing merely because I can't get money for it.
If you're a blockhead, Ken, at least be comforted that you're not alone.
It's strange to me, though. I can't think of any other creative art where professionals spend so much time complaining about the existence of amateurs.
Being one of the million readers I selfishly applaud your principles!
I don't think I'm a blockhead, or a simp, or a patsy, or a hayseed, or any of the other things Harlan Ellison loves to call people who do things differently than he does.
Heh. Harlan Ellison is, for me, the perfect emodiment of the 'loud American' stereotype. I couldn't believe what I was seeing/hearing when I went to my first science fiction convention in the USA and attended his keynote speech. He's lucky he doesn't live in the wild west where folk pack sixguns and shooting your mouth means you'd be pressed to shoot your gun as well. :-)
I don't think you're a blockhead or any of those other things if you make money off your writing. But I do agree with iamstarmom; when someone is paying me for something that I normally enjoy doing, I don't enjoy it as much.
I used to make jewelry as a hobby and eventually quit because it wasn't fun to make stuff to spec for other people. I certainly wouldn't do technical writing for free, but I also don't think I could get paid for fiction because the perfectionist in me would never think it was good enough to get paid for.
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Writing is the same sort of thing. You... and I as well... write because there is something that needs to be written... an idea, a character, a situation, a random bit of dialogue. They burrow in our brains and bug us until we sit down and DO what is needed to get it out on paper. And it is true that we want others to read it: for feedback, for encouragement, for... whatever.
Who cares, ultimately, if we get paid for it? It feeds our souls to enter and exercise in the realm of our creativity. We're lucky we have real life work to pay the bills and time enough to play in our imaginations.
Samuel Johnson was a curmudgeon.
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I don't mean to say that I wouldn't accept payment if it came my way. I'd gobble it up! I just don't want to refrain from publishing merely because I can't get money for it.
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It's strange to me, though. I can't think of any other creative art where professionals spend so much time complaining about the existence of amateurs.
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I don't think I'm a blockhead, or a simp, or a patsy, or a hayseed, or any of the other things Harlan Ellison loves to call people who do things differently than he does.
Heh. Harlan Ellison is, for me, the perfect emodiment of the 'loud American' stereotype. I couldn't believe what I was seeing/hearing when I went to my first science fiction convention in the USA and attended his keynote speech. He's lucky he doesn't live in the wild west where folk pack sixguns and shooting your mouth means you'd be pressed to shoot your gun as well. :-)
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I used to make jewelry as a hobby and eventually quit because it wasn't fun to make stuff to spec for other people. I certainly wouldn't do technical writing for free, but I also don't think I could get paid for fiction because the perfectionist in me would never think it was good enough to get paid for.
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