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During one of my daily writing procrastithons, I perused Forbes and found this: Forbes list of the World's Best Paid Authors. After looking at the list I decided that Tom Clancy probably doesn't stare at Twitter for three hours when he isn't up to writing just five. more. words.
It goes back to what I've said before about the freelance life and something I've been defending as of late: The decision to be or not to be a full fledged writer. Whenever someone asks me if I would ever write for a living I give my stock answer which is that I'd much prefer financial security (even magical financial security in an economic climate that's more likely to give me a financial ulcer, but I digress) and health insurance and all of the other things that a typical office position gives. Of course none of this is guaranteed for nothing in life is...but let's just say that even on my best days, I will not be J.K. Rowling.
So I currently find myself torn as I admit something here: When I was little, I wanted to be Judy Blume/Lois Lowry hybrid. I also wanted to be a ballerina. Regardless growing up we all have these dream careers that and conjure up high hopes and as children we are told that we can be anything we want to be. We spend years thinking that we can write Newberry Prize or Nobel Prize winning pieces and make millions. And then we grow up and that dream is replaced by the reality that getting out a single paragraph sometimes takes up to an hour and can only be done under specific circumstances involving the direction of the wind and the temperature of the room.
I find myself loathing and loving the authors on this list. Loathing because of jealousy and loving because they did something that I - and many others - feel to be the most unattainable of goals; to be a successful writer. They're in this sky high echelon that I will never reach but there's this part of me who of course knows the writers on this list have bad days. They struggle and at one time or another they've decided to watch bad reality television while basking in the glow of their laptops and trying to make a deadline. So I guess on some level, we're all the same.
Here are a few of my favorite successful writers. They aren't among the World's Best Paid but they're all pretty damn good:
New York Times Bestselling Author, Jen Lancaster. The irreverent, Stephanie Klein and a woman who has spent almost every waking minute of the last several years transforming an idea into published pages like with an actual cover and readers other than her mother, Rita Arens.
Heather B. writes and writes and writes at No Pasa Nada. And then she writes some more.
