November 3, 2005

During one of Harlen Coben's talks at Magna cum Murder, he commented that there were 3 elements to a writer's success and two were commonly understood but the third was not.

Inspiration. Easy, he noted. We all know about it.

Perspiration. Again, actually sitting down to do the work.

The third was less heard about, and it was Desperation. He noted that a lot of writers would be nodding their heads when they heard this, but what often drives us to the keyboard to get the work done was the fear that if we didn't make this work we'd have to go out and get a real job. And he also amusingly noted that he'd recently done some promotion thing in Florida and he got lost and forgot his schedule and left things in his hotel room, and that if he had worked for a bank he would have been fired.

Now, I worked 18 years in the so-called "real world," (and it ain't all that real and everything negative you hear about it is true at one time or another) and I can guarantee you that I vastly, vastly prefer this writing life, even with its up and down income and lack of security. And I'm working my buns off to make this work because, yes Harlen, I'm scared to death I'll have to go back and get a real job.

It's with some irony that I noted the anniversary of my first full year of freelancing fulltime on October 27th. I was so damned busy that day I forgot all about it and didn't think about it until I was in my hotel room in Muncie. Maybe that's what that beer was all about, a little mini-celebration.

And just FYI, although I didn't seriously contemplate this, we had a rough patch recently, mostly in the "everybody owes me money but nobody's paid me in 3-1/2 weeks and the Visa bill is due" sort of thing, and I asked my wife honestly if she thought I should go look for a staff writing or editing job somewhere. She looked a little stunned and said, "No. I like this lifestyle too much." That lifestyle being, I'm around to deal with getting the kids off to school, making sure homework gets done, instruments practiced, picking up Ian when he has afterschool events, taking the dog out regularly, etc.

And to that end, I love it, too, and will work pretty damned hard to make it work. Which is why I need to go back to this rewrite awaiting me.

Best,
Mark Terry