Ray I just want to tell you how much I loved your response regarding emotional attachment to your job. I encountered similar responses from people when I left the culinary world. People often say "Wasn't cooking your passion?" I often say "it still is! I love food and wine! But I worked 100 hours a week, missed every holiday, missed every birthday, missed every weekend, for $60000 a year!". The romanticized view of the restaurant industry is similar to the writer world I assume. I left the last restaurant I ran to pursue a graduate degree so I can make better money and hopefully work better hours. If someone paid me 100k to run a restaurant and let me off a few more weekends I'd leap at the chance today, but that's just not the case. On Mar 23, 2013 3:54 PM, "Raymond Feist" <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Mar 23, 2013, at 1:01 PM, Randy Goodman <[email protected]> wrote: > > Fascinating. I would think that it would feel more like 'family' or > something to you other than text. Do you have any feeling about what you've > created? I can't believe it's just a profession to you. > > > Look, I know a lot of writers love the idea that somehow they're dashing, > romantic figures, and that suffering for one's art is a big part of that > nonsense. > > Do I have emotional attachements to my characters? No. Do I have > emotional attachments to a book? No. > > Do I take pride in my work? Yes. Do I want my work to move people, to > engage them, to leave them feeling they were entertained? Yes. > > Writing is a very exacting task. It's the only art form where most people > have the basic tool set. So a lot of people don't get how hard good > writing at the professional level can be, which is why we get a fair mount > of bad writing at the professional level, and why most amateur writing is > pretty bad. > > It's the hardest job I've had. It's also the best job I've ever had. Do > not diminish the pride of workmanship and achieving a desired result as > "just a profession." There's nothing "just" about doing good work. > > Best, R.E.F. > > ---- > www.crydee.com > > Never attribute to malice what can satisfactorily be explained away by > stupidity. > > > > > >
