I've always dreamed of success

[Anonymous No.21649008]

Since I was young, I dreamt of being the next Tolkien. It wasn't until reaching my 30's that I realized only less than 1% writers reach stardom. I thought of appealing to the mainstream would help, but even that is hard. Should I give up my dream and just focus on writing good stories?

[Anonymous No.21649019]

[Anonymous No.21649024]

>>21649019
Literally me

[Anonymous No.21649113]

I used to think that I could only be so passionate if i have the talent to back it up. Now I realize that all my desire rather comes from a place of insecurity and I have rather instead only served to embarrass myself via my creative output
T. Musician

[Anonymous No.21649148]

I've always dreamed of a nice small home with old materials and a smoking chimney populated by my children but it seems none of us will get our wish

[Anonymous No.21649176]

>>21649148
Why do you want children? It's the 21st century my dude..

[Anonymous No.21649191]

>>21649176
Guess I'm silly

[Anonymous No.21649204]

"I remember that, when I started writing, we never thought about the success or failure of a book. One wrote for himself, and, perhaps, like Stevenson says, for a group of friends". Jorge Luis Borges.

[Anonymous No.21649245]

Why not both, op? Seek fame but also creating good stories wtf

[Anonymous No.21649302]

If you do it for the pleasure of the craft, someone will shill your work on here for free, so there's that.
Gardner, Painting, et al. They have become part of the /lit/geist.

[Anonymous No.21649321]

>>21649008
I think one of the best examples of how to be a writer today is actually Delicious Tacos. He has a dayjob and writes in his free time as his passion, he has a niche but dedicated audience, doesn't sacrifice authenticity because he is self-published and not dependent on the income of his writings but over time he has, while remaining true to himself and writing what he wants, developed enough success to at least pay the rent from his Amazon sales.

[Anonymous No.21649337]

>>21649321
I agree with you and think this is the future of writing. Independent authors self-publishing material they enjoy and attracting a small loyal group of readers. Also small groups of authors banding together and recreating pulp magazines or something similar.

[Anonymous No.21649647]

>>21649008
Write for you and find your niche. No one who sought out to appeal to the mainstream ever made anything worthwhile or lasting

[Anonymous No.21649683]

>I guess these are the hardest cases, because they want so hard to be professionals that it doesn't take very much encouragement to make them think they are.

>to hear this fellow and his wife discussing and analyzing stories was a revelation in how much it is possible to know about technique without being able to use any. If you have enough talent, you can get by after a fashion without guts; and if you have enough guts, you can also get by, after a fashion, without talent. But you certainly can't get by with neither. These not-quite writers are very tragic people and the more intelligent they are, the more tragic, because the step they can't take seems to them such a very small step, which in fact it is. And every successful or fairly successful writer knows, or should know, by what a narrow margin he himself was able to take that step. But if you can't take it, you can't. That's all there is to it.
t. chandler

[Anonymous No.21649688]

>>21649008
>Should I give up my dream
No

[Anonymous No.21649701]

>>21649683
which episode is this from?

[Anonymous No.21649755]

>>21649701
#25: sonichu's collected papers and letters

[Anonymous No.21649780]

>>21649683
Funny, because he published his first novel with 51

[Anonymous No.21649899]

>>21649176
Nature wills it.

[Anonymous No.21649952]

>>21649008
writing good stories is its own reward

[Anonymous No.21649980]

>>21649008
If you're in writing for fame and that's what you deem as "success" then I have to share my story.

I had a shop years ago. I was successful with this shop and frequently spoke to others as they came to me for advice and pitch to me ideas about business adventures they wanted to embark on. You'd be amazed at how many people would come up to me and say, "It's always been my dream to open a coffeeshop/bookshop combination — just a place where people can come and read and drink coffee."

I'd have to figure out a way to gently burst their bubble. They pitched their supply without checking to see if there was any demand. They had a good idea but behind every good idea needs to be some solid business ideology. You always handle the business aspect first before you live your dream. The business part will feed your dream but only if people will buy and the truth is, they may not and then you're stuck with thousands of dollars tied up in books, coffee and whatever expenses you put into construction of that shop. I've watched many people invest thousands of dollars in their dream and nobody bought into their dream.

The good business owners find what the people want and supply their demand. The bad ones give their supply and hope there's a demand.

If you're wanting to have success in writing as far as fame goes. Figure out what's in demand and write things they want. People will buy. You will achieve success.

[Anonymous No.21650152]

>>21649980
I knew of a bookstore/café in my town where you could get some of the dankest titles. Unfortunately for the small town, this bohemian central had to be closed down due to some bullshit law about alcohol I think? I'm not even sure, it makes no sense but they had to move and set up shop in another city. People don't realize what a hassle it is to run a business.

[Anonymous No.21650224]

>>21649980
How'd you figure out there was a demand? Did pour over google maps and find areas without a good book/coffee shop near by and ask locals there if they wanted one?

[Anonymous No.21650300]

>>21650224
I never said I had a coffeeshop bookshop. I simply used that as an example from the numerous amount of times people would pitch their idea/dream to me. My whole point was that I saw many people start a business on their supply without making any preliminary attempts to see if there was a demand. Any business venture is a gamble but supplying an existing demand has far greater success than supplying something and hoping a demand is there. There are many ways to study markets and see what's trending and what's not. The really smart business guys are the one that can detect their current business is a dying one and will sell out and seek the next uprising trend.

[Anonymous No.21650541]

>>21649176
You are metaphysically weak willed and have drastically low T

[Anonymous No.21650545]

>>21650300
I got what you meant, I was just wondering how you did it with whatever your business was.

[Anonymous No.21650638]

>>21649008
I was never troubled by such vanities because I have an intrinsic definition of success. I will consider myself successful when I write precisely what I want precisely how I want . Doing so would satisfy my own yearning for self-mastery . It's foolish to wish after fame and fortune anyway, especially as a writer .
I know for sure that fame would drive me absolutely psychotic. Like shut in my room in darkness all the time crazy.

[Anonymous No.21650649]

>>21649008
Why would you want to be famous for writing garbage? It sounds like there’s a deeper unfulfilled emotional need

[Anonymous No.21650651]

>>21650545
Well, mine was a no brainer. I moved to a big tourist area in the U.S. and opened a souvenir shop. Millions of people came to that area each year with pockets full of money and wanted to take some little something home that reminded them of their stay. Yes, there are plenty of other gift shops in the area but even with the supply, the demand is still not met. Your idea of google maps to locate what is in an area and what is not is a good idea. I'd make my weekly rounds to other shops to befriend and talk to other souvenir shop owners to see what was selling and what was not. I know right now there are many men scouring articles, graphs, markets and such to discern what is in demand or a possible niche to supply. There's money to be had. You just need to find out what people want to spend their money on.

[Anonymous No.21650716]

>>21649008
>Should I give up my dream
Yes, you're in your 30's.

[Anonymous No.21650728]

Never give up

[Anonymous No.21650731]

I heard someone once give the advice to “dream another dream” and I just think that’s the worst advice ever given.

[Anonymous No.21650742]

>>21650731
lil nemo rules dude

[Anonymous No.21650763]

>>21650716
Insane post. You're awful

[Anonymous No.21650801]

>>21650731
Why would you think that? You’re left with your nightmares otherwise.

[Anonymous No.21650977]

>>21650763
Yea!...

Give up when you're 40.

[Anonymous No.21651127]

>>21650977
You’re one of those pessimistic antinatalists, anon. You take yourself out of mattering. There’s no reason to give up.

[Anonymous No.21651144]

>>21649008
>Should I give up my dream and just focus on writing good stories?
yes

[Anonymous No.21652150]

If you're not writing because you have genuine passion for the craft then I believe you have bigger problems.