When I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders and my insides turn to jelly from the pressure of responsibility, I ask myself this question. Why write? After all, it isn’t the most lucrative career. Much like actors or musicians, only a handful writers break through to become super stars. The rest, who are just as talented, lead lives of mediocrity and midlist, never quite reaching best-seller status. If this were all about money, I would have chosen a career where I could make big bucks. I could have been an accountant, a doctor, a rocket scientist… a contender (come on, you knew it was coming). But instead, I have been working for five years now on an English degree. English majors are not known for their big paychecks. So obviously it isn’t just about the money.
Though I think of writing as my passion and my preferred career path, I still work an average 40-hour-a-week office job. GASP! It isn’t my dream, but it pays the bills. Though it isn’t about the money, I have mouths to feed at home. I can be a starving writer, but I won’t allow my family to starve. Many people would accept the careers they fell into, regardless of whether or not they are passionate about what they do. They wake up, go to work, come home, watch TV, and go to bed. Wash, rinse, and repeat ad infinitum. However, I am not like many people. No matter what I am doing, I continue to fight until I reach full-time writer status, the career I love. At work, I have a post it on my computer. It says, “I am a writer. I write books.” I have this to remind myself not to get too comfortable because there are bigger and better things ahead of me. I just have to get there. Why struggle and bust my ass for something that is never guaranteed? Because it is my passion and when one has a passion, one is willing to shed blood, sweat, and tears for it. My passion is writing books that I want to read. It is as simple as that.
Lastly, I think I write because I have an overwhelming desire to communicate with the masses. Though I write fiction, I try to include real world issues and ideas. Though there may be magic, ghosts, and dark entities, they are just mediums through which I deliver the bigger picture. I strongly believe that art should make a person cry, laugh, nod, or shake his head. As long as it causes a reaction, it is art.
That is why I write; because I have something to say, something that I am passionate about, and I want to get a rise out of you. That is the only pay I need.
C. L. Parson
C. L. Parson 