I have been writing professionally for more than 30 years. Sold my first short story in 1995 to a Christian magazine, and got a $75 check! Why was that important? Because my mother didn’t think I’d make any money from a creative profession. I really wanted to be an interior decorator, but she dissuaded me. “Look at your Uncle Jack. He’s a decorator, and he doesn’t make any money,” she would say. I’m not sure why. She had no idea how much he made, but it sounded good for her argument. That’s not to say that my mom wasn’t great or that she didn’t care about what I wanted. She was just anxious that I would always be able to take care of myself. Good job, Mom!
I started as a banker for 25 years, managing branches. Then, my daughter was born in 1999 and that was it. I was home with her 24/7. It was where I wanted to be. Living on one income was rough, but we managed to squeak by. But then, I started writing stories, novels, non-fiction articles and 11 books, and then, blog posts. I stopped selling words for dollars per se, but I started writing copy for my businesses online. I have a design and development agency, which at my age, I’m starting to wind down. And then I thought, “Now what?” If I’m not working on websites. What’s next?
What drove me away from my business is that I just got sick of the shit. People can be very, very picky and hard to deal with. So, you go back and forth, and they want to tell you how they want things, whether or not they look trashy. They don’t understand that I’ve done hundreds of sites with my team, and I do know design. But some think they know better. So, I just gave them what they wanted. They were paying, and the client is always right? Nope. But they got what they wanted.
So, here I am, I have an art gallery site to work with, but though I enjoy art history and had enough credits to minor in it in college, I find writing about art to be so subjective in some ways. What I see isn’t necessarily what others see, though I do consult the experts like Waldemar Januszek, who I think is charming and very knowledgeable. I have watched his shows for years and always come away satisfied with what I’ve learned. Yet, it’s not the kind of writing I really want to do.
I want to get back to me. I have several novels unfinished and can think of dozens of topics that I want to cover, or is it worth the effort? I mean, everyone can be a writer using AI, I suppose. But it that art? Is it talent? Is it readable? I don’t know. I just feel like artists of all genres are getting the short shrift with AI. Where does that leave us?
Writers write.
Writers write.
Let me say it again…
Writers write.
And so I shall…