Monday, March 3, 2008

The Art or The Craft

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master."--Hemingway

Are we artists or craftsmen? Where does our satisfaction come in. An visual artist can put painting on the wall, good or bad. A musician can play on the street and be heard. Even if an actor doesn't make it to Hollywood or New York A-list status, an actor can act in little theatre, regional productions and even amateur plays.

A writer is dependant upon being published in order to share their work on a large scale. Yet, most writer's goal is to be published. I'm the same way, in spite of the odds against it. If you want to make money from writing, write non fiction, so much easier to publish and pays better.
If you love fiction, make the actual process your friend, your goal and your pleasure. That is where the most satisfaction will come in.

Focus on the actual writing, not having written and now being published. Pay attention to how you feel as you create a world, bring characters alive and essentially play God. It's fun, and scary and so satisfying.

I'm not advocating writing and then putting it in a drawer. By all means, when that best seller is done, send it out. But know that for every NYT Best seller out there, there are hundreds of mid list books or small press books that never see the Times and thousands of wonderful books that never make it to either print or ebook status. Learn to enjoy the doing more than the being done. If you write, you are a writer.

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