Writing for a Living

Everyone romanticizes the idea of writing a novel. The work itself is very satisfying, but you have to wait a long, long time to get any recognition for it, if you ever get it at all. Writing for a living was different.

I worked for 30 years as a marketing and corporate writer. I had an identity. I made myself useful to a lot of nice and smart people. When I walked into a room, people knew that whatever writing problems they had would be handled. That was nice.

I don’t want to romanticize the corporate world. It could be awful. But most times, writing for corporate people was fine. They knew I could do something that they needed but could not do for themselves. I was needed.

You seldom feel needed as a novelist. Interesting, to many people, at times. But not needed. I love the challenge of writing a novel. But having lived two lives as a writer, I see the limitations – and the benefits – of writing for the business world and writing for myself.