July 25, 2007

Great Comments on Chaleen Duggan's Hilarious Article!
printable version

Chaleen:

That was a great article, and it's the truth. I realized it a long time ago, but I never really understood until I started musing on it myself a few weeks ago. It's a fact though: To make money as a freelance writer or artist or musician or whatever, you have to view yourself as a high priced prostitute. It's just a fact.

Just like prostitutes may have husbands or people they actually enjoy sex with, as opposed to people they work for, you as a writer may have work or writing or whatever you consider "holy" or "sacred" and untouchable. In order to put bread on the table however, the rest must be sold to the highest bidder.

Here's another fact and don't forget it, and maybe this is the New Jerseyite in me: Ain't no shame in puttin' bread on the table and gettin' the mortgage paid and gettin' the kids fed and the wife flowers and gas in the car and a dime for Sunday School. No shame at all in that that I can see. I think artists of all stripes have funny ideas about the holiness or sacredness of art, and I think there are plenty of publishers, etc. willing to take advantage of those entrenched notions, but when I was in really bad medical shape last summer, it wasn't any publisher who helped me with money to get out of it.

Anyway. Keep on keepin' on.

"Fame is easy, rites of passage not so much." Indeed.

Dave

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Dear Angela,

Chaleen's article is A GEM!! Very clever way of making a valid point---and in a way that makes a lasting impression.

I, too, chortled through it, but the biggest guffaw from me was a result of reading her bio at the end. Then again, I think I'd been primed for laughter along the way that built to a hearty--dare I say it?--climax.

I forwarded it to a favorite editor who has a good sense of humor and who was a writer in a previous life. Since he can relate to both sides of the fence, I'm sure he'll appreciate the analogy.

Thanks for printing Chaleen's very witty piece.

Glenna

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I am a newbie here and Chaleen Duggan's article had me rolling on the
floor. Believe it or not I still want to give it a shot... Insanity
doesn't run in my family, it gallops...

Vinnie Sorce
http://vinster82.blogspot.com