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Ah, the typical and noble starving artist, who sacrifices material well-being in order to focus on its artwork.
Yes. You seem to have a problem with that?
Speaking of Patrick Rothfuss: he's an new author and his book Name of the Wind is amazing. If you enjoy fantasy and can get past the (overwrought and somewhat preening "Hah hah I am a Real Writer Now") first chapter, I highly, highly recommend it. It is my favorite book I've bought on my Kindle yet.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. You seem to have a problem with that?
The sentiment is understandable. The myth of the starving artist suffering for his art was already (mostly) nonsense when it was dreamed up in the romantic era and it's high time, I think, that after two hundred years we start thinking about putting it to rest once and for all.
Speaking of Patrick Rothfuss: he's an new author and his book Name of the Wind is amazing. If you enjoy fantasy and can get past the (overwrought and somewhat preening "Hah hah I am a Real Writer Now") first chapter, I highly, highly recommend it. It is my favorite book I've bought on my Kindle yet.
How does it compare to Martin's _Song of Ice and Fire_ novels? (my new yardstick for high-quality contemporary fantasy)
Less political intrigue (by about two orders of magnitude), far fewer characters, frame character is better realized, far closer to Martin than Tolkien on the grit scale although less explicit about it, rather more magic, far closer to Tolkien than Martin in the heroic fantasy department.
I liked the first three Song of Ice and Fire books quite a bit, although in a lot of ways they are not my usual cup o' tea.
Of course, a good ratio depends not only on living cheap but also getting paid reasonably well for something that doesn't kill you (or your soul).
The first time I got anywhere near this ratio was 8 years ago, but to get it I had to sleep in a tent, wake up at 5 AM and plant trees like a madman on the side of a mountain every day for an entire summer. It was my own personal hell, but then paid for a full year of doing what I loved for free, which then led to the best opportunities of my life, so that I never had to go back to those damned mountains again.
I'm not very good at side projects... I only really get into the zone when I commit myself to something fully. So being able to partition my life into discrete segments of "sell my services" and "build something I care about" is valuable to me.
This is a special case of the general advice that keeping your expenses low allows you to spend your time on activities that don't have to (immediately) make you money. This is actually one of the main ideas in the Y Combinator system, isn't it (ramen profitability, work at home, etc)?
Yes, this is very similar to the advice Paul Graham gives when talking about "ramen profitability", because it takes time for people to create things of value - whether it's a startup or the next great Harry Potter story. In fact J.K. Rowling talked about her mad rush to just finish the first Potter book before returning to full time employment as a teacher, when there would be no time to write. It's interesting to m…
Part of his justification seems to be that for Sci-Fi, contemporary or near-future, living somewhere cheap can isolate you from an inspiring community. He also seems worried that living somewhere cheap can have a negative effect on your life in terms of health care and whatnot.
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/03/cmap-4-t...
Speaking of Patrick Rothfuss: he's an new author and his book Name of the Wind is amazing. If you enjoy fantasy and can get past the (overwrought and somewhat preening "Hah hah I am a Real Writer Now") first chapter, I highly, highly recommend it. It is my favorite book I've bought on my Kindle yet.
The only comparable author I know is PC Hodgell, she seems to average 5-10 years between books. It's maddening since it's my favorite series, it's been 25 years since I started and there's still so many plot elements that are waiting to be resolved.
"The Muffin of Wisdom" would be a great name for a comedic fantasy novel about a chef's hapless apprentice.