[ SECRET POST #2493 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2493 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 019 secrets from Secret Submission Post #356.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

03. http://i.imgur.com/Ht5nGY4.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Didn't Neil Gaiman have a career as a journalist before he started writing Sandman? Journalist is in no way a reasonable career these days, since newspapers have all but folded, but he was already making a living writing, and then started... writing more?

[(Anonymous)]

You can still do online journalism, though. There's still a market.

[(Anonymous)]

He did, yeah. I'm pretty sure he mentions that as being part of his writing career, the fact that he HAD to write for a living because the other alternative was starving. He kind of avoids the fact that making a living in journalism or freelance was easier back then than it is now. These days, writing pays peanuts and lots of places seem to expect content providers to do their thing for "exposure", i.e. no paycheck.

[(Anonymous)]

Technical writing is where I make my living, and it's a reasonable and steady income, supplemented by my fiction writing. Academia, translation, specialised technical/scientific writing, even big chunks of teaching at higher grade levels or adult education...it's all writing, and there's lots of career paths there. Very few writers have ever made a living purely out of writing fiction (even extremely popular, prolific writers like Twain and Dickens) but I don't think there's anything wrong with honing your writing skills and using them for a regular job as well.

[(Anonymous)]

He also comes from a wealthy Scientologist family who didn't let him starve during his twenties and thirties. (http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ca-Ge/Gaiman-Neil.html) He likes to conveniently ignore that fat while telling teenagers to get stuck in the writing trap.

[(Anonymous)]

1. Your first million words is practice.
1a. If you can get paid for some of those first million words, more power to you.
2. It really does take ten years to be an overnight success.
3. Don't quit your day job until you've done the fucking math. Starving in a garret for your art is only romantic if you're not the one starving.

[chardmonster]

He's Neil Gaiman. He's made an entire career out of appealing to gormless teenagers who feel exceptional. He's dating the adult version of one. He's not about to stop now.

[vethica]

They're married now, actually.

[(Anonymous)]

So what I'm getting from this is that Neil Gaiman once appeared in your falafel and you were traumatized for life.

[(Anonymous)]

I think you summed up in two sentences why I dislike AFP.

[ariakas]

Hahahah man that really cuts to the bone, doesn't it.

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed. He's basically murdering these stupid snowflake kids, encouraging them to discard all their lifelines and go for their dreams at the expense of their security. They will starve. and we will laugh.

[(Anonymous)]

That's terrible advice.

"It worked for me!" Yeah, and it won't work for everyone, because each person is in different circumstances.

Doesn't matter how good you are at writing - you NEED a backup plan, some kind of career to fall back on, because you need to pay for basic things like food and shelter and electricity. Writing doesn't guarantee that you will have those things.

That sucks, but it's reality.

[badass_tiger]

I feel the same way, to tell the truth. Phrasing it like that makes it sound like it's totally okay to load on others while you 'make it as a writer'. It's not going to work for everyone. But it is nice of him to be encouraging of young writers, since he is a big one and all.

[(Anonymous)]

I completely agree, OP. But he is a fantasy writer, so it's not like realism is why we like him, right?

[(Anonymous)]

That's fine for fiction. It's not so fine for giving young people advice when they expect you to be honest and not misleading.

[(Anonymous)]

Don't forget that most writers aren't as talented as Gaiman.

[(Anonymous)]

Ehhhhhhh... I love me some Neverwhere and Good Omens, but as a whole, the guy's work is pretty clunky. I wouldn't call it "good".

[(Anonymous)]

You mean most writers don't have a rich family to keep them afloat, which he did.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I agree to a certain extent. He glides past this point so fast I don't think he even realizes what he's saying -- but he *had* a dad who could have supported him indefinitely if he never found his feet as a writer. Not everybody's that lucky.

That said: I'm a professional writer, if at a far lower tier than Neil. And I do think he's got a point that to some extent with this career, you just have to close your eyes and leap. I think part of why I've been able to make my living as a writer the last decade and change is that I didn't listen when people told me how hard it would be; get hung up on that, and you may as well just go sell property.

[(Anonymous)]

get hung up on that, and you may as well just go sell property.

But see, that's the thing--people in this thread are advocating doing BOTH, not just one. It's the whole "starving artist" ideal that people should avoid, because circumstances are usually not right for people to survive just on their writing. Grunt jobs are life.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm torn on this - because on the one hand, the idea that a person cannot make a living being a writer is utter bullshit. I'm a novelist. It's where 80% of my income comes from. (The other 20% is a part time job I mostly keep so that I can actually have human contact and leave my house once in a while.) Don't get me wrong. Making a living as a writer is fucking hard. There's a ridiculous amount of luck to it, and you have to work harder than most people realize.

But it is possible. Difficult, yes. Impossible, no.

So Gaiman telling a fan that a person can make a career as a writer? It's not horrible advice. I do think he should've added that one needs an alternative form of income until one actually breaks into the industry.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think people are saying NOBODY can make a living at it, because duh, it's obvious people do. Gaiman's one of them. The problem lies in not being honest about the realities of writing as your career-- most working writers aren't as well off as Gaiman, and many are one serious illness or car wreck away from major financial trouble. He glosses over that point in favor of the "live your dream!" message. That's... sweet, but not entirely practical for the majority of would-be writers reading his advice.

[diet_poison]

Not everyone is as talented/lucky as you apparently are. Most people will never make a living in the arts. That doesn't mean they shouldn't pursue the arts, because they should, but nobody should assume that they're going to make it big. Shoot high, but don't quit the day job.