The orig\u00adi\u00adnal\u00adi\u00adty of his mes\u00adsage blew me away. I\u2019d nev\u00ader heard such a thing before! \u201cDon\u2019t quit your day job.\u201d<\/em> So sim\u00adple, so pithy, so ele\u00adgant! I repeat\u00aded it to myself over and over so I would\u00adn\u2019t for\u00adget it. When\u00adev\u00ader I encoun\u00adtered fel\u00adlow writ\u00aders, whether they were best\u00adselling authors, blog\u00adgers or Star\u00adbucks poets, I said to them, \u201cDon\u2019t quit your day job.\u201d They all frowned and shoved me away (I\u2019m talk\u00ading to you, Stephen King).<\/p>\n Seri\u00adous\u00adly, I did none of those things. Instead, because $164,000 Guy\u2019s dra\u00adcon\u00adian pro\u00adnounce\u00adment was so anti\u00adthet\u00adi\u00adcal to my approach to Life and my writ\u00ading, in the inter\u00adest of fos\u00adter\u00ading live\u00adly debate on this issue, I post\u00aded a respect\u00adful cri\u00adtique of his posi\u00adtion, think\u00ading he\u2019d appre\u00adci\u00adate one of his read\u00aders tak\u00ading the time to do this.<\/p>\n BIG MISTAKE. Turns out, $164,000 Guy was more inter\u00adest\u00aded in being RIGHT than he was in find\u00ading the truth (a shock\u00ader, I know), and imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly coun\u00adtered with a half-assed response, which I won\u2019t dig\u00adni\u00adfy here. Bot\u00adtom line: I decid\u00aded that instead of wast\u00ading my time on a point\u00adless debate, I was just going to keep writ\u00ading. It\u2019s like Hem\u00ading\u00adway said in an inter\u00adview late in his writ\u00ading career:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When I was a young writer, the debate was this: \u2018alto\u00adgeth\u00ader\u2019 or \u2018all together\u2019\u2014should it be one word or two? How\u2019d that turn out any\u00adway?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Inter\u00adest\u00ading thing about the writ\u00ading world: it\u2019s full of clowns like $164,000 Guy\u2014people who sug\u00adgest that they\u2019re<\/em> the only ones who were born to write, that they<\/em> some\u00adhow are the only ones graced by Prov\u00adi\u00addence with the req\u00adui\u00adsite con\u00adfi\u00addence, tal\u00adent, patience and per\u00adsis\u00adtence to make a liv\u00ading as a writer.<\/p>\n Back in col\u00adlege, one of the best cours\u00ades I took was \u201cExplor\u00aders of the World,\u201d taught by a his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adan who had been to the South Pole and the top of K2. And when she talked about the Span\u00adish conquerer\/ explor\u00ader Cortez, the woman lit up<\/em>. Her favorite anec\u00addote, and mine, was how, upon arriv\u00ading in the New World, to moti\u00advate his men, Cortez burned his ships. You\u2019ve prob\u00ada\u00adbly heard this sto\u00adry, so I won\u2019t bela\u00adbor it here. But in case you don\u2019t know it, here\u2019s an excel\u00adlent blog entry about it<\/a> writ\u00adten by a 3\u2011time world wrestling cham\u00adpi\u00adon.<\/p>\n I came to love this prin\u00adci\u00adple of \u201cburn\u00ading your ships,\u201d and I\u2019ve applied it lib\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly in all of my endeav\u00adors, includ\u00ading writ\u00ading. For 15 years after col\u00adlege I held day jobs as a high school his\u00adto\u00adry teacher, tech\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy man\u00adag\u00ader in finan\u00adcial ser\u00advices, web con\u00adtent edi\u00adtor and adjunct Eng\u00adlish pro\u00adfes\u00adsor. Even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly, how\u00adev\u00ader, I noticed that my day jobs stole too much of my time and sapped too much of my ener\u00adgy. I had to make a choice. I chose to be a full-time writer. I make between $75 and $100 per hour as a scriptwriter and speech\u00adwriter for cor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtions, but I would nev\u00ader have been able to make that kind of mon\u00adey if I\u2019d stayed on the \u201csafe\u201d ama\u00adteur track.<\/p>\n Going pro has also improved my own writing\u2014my fic\u00adtion. This isn\u2019t to say that it\u2019s always easy. On the con\u00adtrary, there are many months when I just squeak by finan\u00adcial\u00adly. But I got\u00adta tell you, know\u00ading that there are no ships<\/em> wait\u00ading in the har\u00adbor to take me back, know\u00ading that there\u2019s no \u201cfall\u00adback posi\u00adtion,\u201d has moti\u00advat\u00aded me like you would\u00adn\u2019t believe. There\u2019s no going back. There\u2019s only FORWARD. For\u00adward or die. Now, I\u2019m not say\u00ading that \u201cburn\u00ading your ships\u201d should nec\u00ades\u00adsar\u00adi\u00adly man\u00adi\u00adfest itself as quit\u00adting your day job. Ulti\u00admate\u00adly it\u2019s about mak\u00ading a choice: a choice towards writ\u00ading or some\u00adthing else. It\u2019s a ques\u00adtion of com\u00admit\u00adment.<\/p>\n For years, I\u2019ve kept only one quote above my desk. While the words have been alter\u00adnate\u00adly attrib\u00aduted to Ger\u00adman writer\/philosopher Johann Wolf\u00adgang von Goethe and Scot\u00adtish explor\u00ader W.H. Mur\u00adray, exact\u00adly who said them isn\u2019t very impor\u00adtant. What is<\/em> impor\u00adtant is their mes\u00adsage, and their mes\u00adsage is clear and sim\u00adple: COMMIT.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Until one is com\u00admit\u00adted, there is hes\u00adi\u00adtan\u00adcy, the chance to draw back. Con\u00adcern\u00ading all acts of ini\u00adtia\u00adtive (and cre\u00adation), there is one ele\u00admen\u00adtary truth that igno\u00adrance of which kills count\u00adless ideas and splen\u00addid plans: that the moment one def\u00adi\u00adnite\u00adly com\u00admits one\u00adself, then Prov\u00adi\u00addence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would nev\u00ader oth\u00ader\u00adwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the deci\u00adsion, rais\u00ading in one\u2019s favor all man\u00adner of unfore\u00adseen inci\u00addents and meet\u00adings and mate\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal assis\u00adtance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. What\u00adev\u00ader you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Bold\u00adness has genius, pow\u00ader, and mag\u00adic in it. Begin it now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n The oth\u00ader thing that ran\u00adkled me about $164,000 Guy\u2019s mes\u00adsage of \u201cdon\u2019t quit your day job\u201d is the dou\u00adble stan\u00addard with which it\u2019s applied. Peo\u00adple with \u201csafe\u201d day jobs (by the way, do these exist today?) are told not to quit them to be writ\u00aders or artists, yet this same advice is nev\u00ader giv\u00aden to peo\u00adple who show promise as writ\u00aders and artists and express an inter\u00adest in, say, com\u00adput\u00ader pro\u00adgram\u00adming.<\/p>\n![\"Stack](\"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/stck100s-218x300.jpg\" "\\"stck100s\\"")
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