AWKWARD ZOMBIE

What kinda stuff do you like to write? I know a guy who is mainly writing sci-fi and fantasy and is able to live off that. He's doing it through that Amazon kindle e-book thing. Maybe you'd like to have a chat with him?
E-books might not be your thing. But it could be enlightening. Then maybe have a chat with Avi at Science & Swords book store.

Hah, while I'd like to make cheddar off writing things, I'm much more interested simply in writing them. Besides, I've already studied it in the past; I'm aware of the systems, but thanks all the same. Publishing would be magical just to have a book, a legit, proper, actual book - not a .doc, not scribbles in an exercise pad, an honest to god book. Imagine that, sitting properly bound on the shelf, with all the rest.

I mean, books are so important, maybe even the most important thing. Things are obviously changing in the world of print media, with varying degrees of success and failure, but the content is what matters, not the vessel. They perpetually change lives, make people better, take the world and flip it upside down. Books just have that distilled power to do almost anything, and to almost anybody. Right now I can pick up my copy of Don Quixote, a book published more than four hundred years ago, and feel the exact same things Cervantes was - I can see his dissatisfaction with the world after his time as a soldier, his refusal to reintegrate into society and his entirely justified fears of progress in the modern world. It's not just that though, it's his ability after all he saw to still believe that the world could be such a romantic, magical place, home to the bravest knight in all the land.

All of that in just one single book, and I have whole shelves of them. I want to write something to be up there next to Cervantes. Really, writing is among the more level playing fields. Any loser can start a blog and pour words into it to their heart's content, and that's amazing. I don't want to be the next Neil Gaiman, obviously that isn't going to happen, but does that matter? We're in a world where ever John Doe walking down the main road has a personal computer in his pocket connected to the whole planet. The only limit to how many people can hear you is how loud you're screaming.

Even then, I don't even really think an audience is a mark of importance in what you're writing. I've recently failed to get my first novel published - near seventy thousand words about my time living in London - and honestly, I'm pretty okay with that. I wrote a whole book! That is something I feel pretty fantastic about. I don't care much if I never make a dollar off it; I know some good writing went into that.

Besides, this is true for so many people. Douglas Adams was a temporary security guard, Gaiman was an unhappy journalist, Poe was a depressed drunk who married his thirteen year old cousin, Hemingway ate pigeons in the park, Bemelmans was a terrible hotel porter who hated his job... I could go on. I've known a lot of people who've liked to dabble in a few thousand words here or there, but they all seem to stop and get bored after realising nobody's reading. I'll happily be pressing on, even when I'm eating pigeons.

I think I know what your next 'cooking with spoony' post should be.

Did Hemmingway kill them there and eat them on the spot? Or did he catch them elsewhere and cook them at home and then bring them to the park as a packed lunch?
My cousin says the old ones are the tastiest.

P.S.: I still reckon you could have a copy of a suitable story or collection of yours printed and we'll go take it over to Avi and get him to put it on his shelves.

I want to be remembered by history.

The ideal dream is to get my degree in experimental music and people like my music enough so I can just make albums and go on tour and stuff to pay everything

But like

that'd be pretty crazy if it actually happened

I also think it'd be fun to be a high school literature teacher, but with a degree in experimental music I don't think I could

I want to do something that people will remember after I'm dead. Maybe not to put in the history books, but a plaque or a little statue in the park. I just want my impact on the world to be a little longer than my meager lifespan.

I want a book published, on a shelf in stores, and a copy of the contract that says such and such publishing house is paying me for the story. I don't want vanity press, I want someone to look at my writing and say, "I want this and I want you to keep writing more."

Writing is going to happen anyway. I'd just like people to enjoy what I created, both now and maybe in the future. Keep it away from the English professors though.

Yup

I want to ruin all the people's dreams.

I want to go back in time to stop Meyer from writing Twilight and go straight to "The Host".

Her only decent book.

daisies Spoony, you kind of made we want to pick up reading again.

If it's any consolation spoon Suits I Wore wasn't bad at all

God like you can even read

but naw thanks old man. Seems like those few who did plow through it seemed to enjoy the bally thing, so all's well that ends well I suppose.

I like it because it's honest and it's well written.

And joke's on you I learned to read like most of the letters last week

Wow Spoony, I haven't read any of your stuff but that post in itself makes me want to. Good luck!

I want to be an inventor. I know that I'm never going to invent anything important but I have gimmicky little ideas and goddamnit I want to bring some stupid/cool things into existence.