Patrick Alan

My wife asked me last night, “Do you really like writing or do you just think you can make money at it?”

That surprised me.

I thought it was obvious I liked writing, but I can see how from the outside it might look like I don’t — like I am just a writer wanna-be, hanging around writers online and off, on blogs, forums, twitter, writer groups, conferences and workshops. I certainly seem to spend more time doing those things than actually writing…

I do like writing. I like a lot of things. Do I think I can make money at writing? Yes. Am I only doing it to make money? No.

It has occurred to me, there are many things that I like to do that I could ‘make money’ at.

I like photography. Specifically, photographing people. I have taken photos for a few family members’ weddings. I have taken some really good shots. I didn’t spend the time to put an album together or anything, I just took hundreds of photos and gave them all to the couples. I have also done wedding videos for friends and family, too.

Also, I am building websites for people. This is another thing that I am doing for the love of doing it. I am geeky. I like to design websites – within my skill set. I am more of a functional person instead of a graphic designer.

I could turn either of these into a ‘job’ and try to drum up actual paying business. I could, but at the moment, I don’t want to. This is not to say that I will never attempt to make money doing either of these things, but for the moment, I enjoy doing it enough as favors to friends.

I have spent time considering the business side of both of these hobbies. Why shouldn’t I?

So, I think of writing in a similar vein. I really like doing it. I get a kick out of leaving 500 words ‘flash stories’ on Robin’s blog or any of the various other blogs or email lists I write goofy things on. That’s me writing for friends for free, because I enjoy it. There’s no question that I enjoy it, in my mind.

Now, my desire to turn it into a career is slightly different. I am not sure why. Maybe it isn’t. Maybe if I had more time I would be pursuing all three and maybe a few other hobbies that I think I have enough skill that people would pay for. For now, I have a cushion. I have a day job(which I also enjoy many aspects of) that pays me well. Maybe if I needed the money, I would be out there trying to find work as a wedding photographer or website designer. Who knows.

Out of these three and probably two or three other hobbies I enjoy, writing is the one that I am pursuing to make money at the moment. That’s really the only difference.

I don’t know if that explains anything. I just wanted to say it. Anyone else have hobbies that other people make money doing?

*Closing Comments. For some reason this post is attracting SPAM and the CAPTCHA isn’t stopping it.

I like advice. I want everyone to give me advice. Then I can then ignore them. That’s the fun part.

Everyone wants to give advice. Even me. The difference is mine is always correct. What you need to do is listen to all of it and then ignore all of it.

This goes for all advice, whether it be marriage, raising children, cat tossing, writing, having an agent, critique groups, or cooking bbq.

It’s advice. You’ll always get conflicting advice. Both sides think they are right. And they are. You need to decide which one is the right one for you. It may take some experimentation.

Sometimes advice is over done. Like if you four time divorced uncle Bob tells you women are evil. Well, that’s true. Err. Well, not completely evil. Bob probably had something to do with it, because as you know, Bob is kind of a unique case.

This does not mean that Bob is bad and wrong and that you shouldn’t listen to his advice. Well, maybe not his advice, but his experience. You hear what he is telling you happened. That’s where you learn not when he tells you never get married.

This is my advice on advice. Think. You know, you might be like Bob. Maybe you shouldn’t get married. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t date. That doesn’t mean that talking to women would kill you.

If I had it all, you know, I’d f..k it up.

Welcome to Friday. You know, I think I should be blogging more regularly, but I am not. There’s a lot of things I’d like to do more regularly that I am not. Not sure why. I’m working on that though.

Well, I have two writing weekends coming up back to back. First, my RWA chapter this weekend and then the local writers conference next weekend. If you are looking for me, I will be there.

Will you be there?

What’s on tap for your weekends?

First the pool. Yes, that is a distraction. Mostly from my dayjob. Do you have any idea how hard it is to NOT go out and watch people wade around in freshly poured concrete? And the thing is, when I get distracted from my dayjob during the day, I have to make it up sometime, like when American Idol is on. And then I have to find time to watch that. It’s all a viscous cycle.

Enough of that complaining. Oh my life is so difficult. People are building me a pool. How can I possibly go on?

I wanted to point out two absolutely fascinating posts, including the comments, on agents going on over at Dean’s blog.

Here’s the first and then the second. I think the thing to remember is what is being shared is their personal experience. I don’t see it as any advice to avoid agents. Deep into the comments they do point out that they are definitely a minority view. What the real point is, that I see, and Dean put it in one of the last comments I read, is something he absolutely does teach at all of his workshops. “You are responsible for your career.”

This goes along with some other advice I heard – in publishing, bad advice can cost you two years.

Anyway, whether you agree or disagree with the advice, the experience shared gives a writer perspective on things to look out for. I know what I have taken from the conversations and it certainly isn’t that agents are bad. I know far too many writers (newer, mind you) who have a very good thing going. Their agent has placed multiple contracts for them. There may be issues and they would be wise to read those posts and keep an eye out for those things, but it can definitely work.

Ok, enough on that.

I wanted to point out that Scott William Carter is starting to write down some of his tricks and tips at www.GamesWritersPlay.com . He’s started off with one that I got from him and I use it all the time. It has helped me immensely. He calls it the 30/50 rule. I call it the 1hr/1k/death rule. I just expanded it a bit for my uses.

Off to work with me now. Feel free to stare endlessly at my pool. I probably will, too.

Here’s the latest photo. I’ve updated the slide show from below, probably another 50+ photos added.

I’m sick. They should be pouting pouring the deck early next week, then a small break until they do the plaster inside the pool. That’s probably when I will do the fence and repair all the sod and such.

It’s mid way through the second work week of the new year and I am settling in. It’s pretty hard to get into gear after a long vacation.

It really started to pick up last week with getting back into the swing of things again. As far as writing goes, I don’t have concrete goals/plans for the year like write two pages a day or anything specific like that. The goal is to write more than I did last year and do it more consistently.

I did ok for me last week. I’ve said that I think 2 books per year(calling 80K a ‘book’) is repectable. That amounts to 3500 words per week. Somewhere around there. That’s about what I wrote last week. I’ll try to keep it up through out the year. That’s the plan.

The challenge is to not have large chunks of unproductivity. It won’t take 3500 words per week to be better than last year. I know plenty of writers where 3500 is less than their daily goal., but those tend to be full time writers. I’ll get there eventually. Maybe in 10 years when I retire from having a day job.

For now, the trick is not to let my travelling, home improvement projects, day job, American Idol, Castle, HIMYM, Better Of Ted, and all the various other distractions keep me from writing, or at least keep me from writing for too long.

I’ll say that the Patriots losing on Sunday, followed by HIMYM, Castle, Better Of Ted, and American Idol have kept me from writing so far this week. I also only started writing on Wednesday of last week as well, so, as long as I write today/tonight, I am ok, I think.

Now, let me jump on that conference call and then go check on the pool.

Do you ever get that feeling that one day you will finish a book and then people will read it and decide that it should be published and then it will be published and people will buy it and either like or hate it, but someone with think you should write another one anyway?

Sometimes I feel like that. I don’t know why, but sometimes I do.

Anyway, the wife is off watching that show called ‘Mercy’ on the DVR. I cannot watch. So, I’ll try writing something.