|
||||||||||
|
Subscribe to the Absolute Write Newsletter and get the Agents! Agents! Agents! report free! Click here.
|
Win a 1-year subscription to Writer's Digest by subscribing to Absolute Markets-- all paying markets for your writing. Click here. |
|
| |||||||||||||
|
|
A Writer's Life: Fantasy vs. Reality By Jennifer Gomoll
You were teaching yourself to read at five years old. You were a sensitive, overlooked high school kid who penned angst-ridden verse in study hall. Now, with a correspondence college degree in creative writing under your belt, you're ready to make all your dreams of being a glamorous, multimillionaire scribe a reality! Take care, big dreamer: what you may really need is a reality check.
Fantasy #1: You are a fabulous, intellectual creature who bestows fascinating insight on the human condition to legions of mere (but devoted!) mortals. Reality #1: You'll spend hours this morning clipping your toenails in front of a blank computer screen, trying to dredge up 500 words on "DIY Septic Tank Maintenance and Repair" for something called Nasty Business Monthly.
Fantasy #2: Witty as Dorothy Parker, and twice as sly as Anne Sexton, your ironic pen cuts to the heart of contemporary society, inspiring wry smiles and nods of amused recognition. Reality #2: An "adult humor" greeting card company just purchased your one-liner which reads, in its entirety, “Happy Birthday, you old fat jerk.”
Fantasy #3: Your ideas spring from a well of creativity, when few individuals are sensitive enough to dig deep and emerge with such fully-formed, intense characters. Reality #3: Your story about the writer with the crappy day job and lame boyfriend isn't fooling anyone.
Fantasy #4: Money means so little to you; crafting literature and seeing it printed in respectable journals makes a living income seem like such a petty concern. Reality #4: You are rather alarmed that the only health insurance plan you can afford consists solely of nightly prayers that your kidneys will still be functional by morning.
Fantasy #5: Your success in the publishing industry leads you to speaking tours and books signings in the most glamorous cities on earth. The high-profile interviews, luxurious gift baskets, and attention from throngs of sexy literary groupies never seem to end! Reality #5: Here you sit in your jammies, spooning up Ben & Jerry's Rocky Road while giggling at humorous columns on the writing life. Shouldn't you be outlining that Great American Novel you've been "working on" for the past decade? Get to work, Hemingway!
Jennifer Gomoll lives in Chicago and has written book reviews, children's stories, humorous slogans, poetry, and (oh yeah) literary fiction for fun and the occasional profit.
|
Sponsored links 
Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer! How to find a book publisher |
Text on this site Copyright © 1998-2007
Absolute Write, all rights reserved.
|
