Saturday, June 13, 2009

Writer's Life - Starving for Our Craft

Prose submission is tough, and poetry submission is tougher. There are so many rejections to be had that you could pull a Steven King, lining them all up on the blade of a knife stuck in the wall. For poetry, the knife collection would be so extensive, the butcher block knife holder in the kitchen would be emptied before a month goes by.

In order to keep food on the table, most of us have other careers, or we write work for hire. I combine tutoring and tech writing. Lately, I've added academic paper mill websites to my list. The ethics of buying papers bothers me, but keeping the roof above us, food in the fridge, and occasionally, a good book coming in from Kingdom Books on abebooks, or from Amazon, has taken me across the line. I am not cheating but I feel I abet it.

What are you all doing to keep surviving? What's your take on the ethics of ghost writing be it novels, memoirs, or academia?

Katherine A Minden ©2009



Posted by Kit Minden at 1:41 AM

1 comment:

  1. Mike ChapmanJune 13, 2009 at 6:18 AM

    Writing is a tough buck. As a fellow creative (though in the visual arts) I too have to balance the bills with my desire for independent creativity. I don't think it's any different. Some days I'm editing a program about some product or service so that everyone involved can keep a roof over their head. On weekends or late at night I can be in the zone and let the butterfly within take flight for something that's purely personal - like this: http://vimeo.com/4907435

    As long as you can keep the commerce/creativity halves happy, or at least sane, you'll be fine.

    --"Cuz"

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