One thing is strange, at least if you’re a hobby writer and live in Germany. (I don’t know whether it’s the same in other countries.) People don’t take your hobby seriously.
If I were writing poems instead of prose (but I don’t have the talent for poems – or maybe I simply don’t like them enough), everybody would be very understanding about me not getting any money for my ‘hobby.’ It’s well understood in Germany that people who write poems don’t get paid for them. There simply isn’t a big market for them.
But I’m writing prose, short stories and novels (well, I’m struggling with my second novel right now, the first one was published in chapters on FictionPress.com), so people don’t think I have any talent for it, because I don’t get paid for them. I do share them with others (eventually), but I haven’t sold any of them up until now.
To me, writing itself is the adventure. It’s a quest I embark upon whenever I sit down in front of my keyboard and start to form words, sentences, paragraphs and chapters out of the 26 little symbols we call letters. It’s not as dangerous as, for instance, finding the Lost Ark. It’s not as rewarding as making your first million dollars (at least, not financially). But it’s an adventure, nevertheless.
Will I ever turn from a hobby writer into a professional writer? I hope so. But even if it never works out, I still do have a great hobby.
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