Friday, August 6, 2010

Tell the Truth!

I know you all LOVE to write mysteries.  I know you'd rather be a writer than anything especially an accountant, a house painter, a runway model, a professional athlete or a small town police chief who's constantly outsmarted by the local amateur sleuth, but what if...

What if you suddenly inherited a bundle of money from an uncle you didn't even know existed and you were obscenely rich, then what?  Would you continue to pound out mysteries?  Would you travel with your laptop even when skiing in St. Moritz or trekking in Bhutan?  Would you continue to worry about deadlines even while your yacht was anchored in Cannes for the festival?  

Would your life be empty without writing?  Would you feel at a loss with no goals except to have a good time?  Or would you devote your self to serving the poor and giving away your millions as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are doing?  OR would you continue to think up new plots and characters who beg to come to life on the page?  

I don't know.  I just don't know.  But I'd like the chance to find out.  

Do you write because you have to or you want to?  Tell the Truth.

10 comments:

Keith Raffel said...

Carol, Want to. The worse this world gets, the more I want to spend time in another reality that exists only in my head.

G.M. Malliet said...

Want to. The wish to travel might slow my production for a bit, but the boredom of having nothing to do...I could not stand that for more than a week or so.

I suppose my ideal would be to book a world cruise and take my laptop on board.

Unknown said...

I have to. And I want to.

The inheritance would be perfect so I can just concentrate on writing and not worry about finances.

I would use the money to travel the world, experience different cultures and meet people - and of course write whilst traveling. I've done the backpacking way, to write I'd take my laptop and travel the suitcase way, probably staying in one place months at a time to really find the perfect writing haunts and get into a writing routine. It wouldn't matter where I was, I would still write.

Sue Ann Jaffarian said...

I'm with Jesse - have to and would want to, but probably not at the breakneck schedule I'm on now. Writing not only satisfies my soul, I can honestly say it has provided me with a sense of belonging and purpose I've never felt before. It's like I've finally come home.

Carol Grace said...

Good to hear how much you all love writing! Aren't we lucky to be doing what we're doing and even get paid for it. I'm sure the million dollar check is in the mail.

Darrell James said...

Carol- Being rich wouldn't suck. And there are a lot of things one can do to make and have money. (Bank robbery comes to mind.) But I really can't imagine not writing and telling stories.

It was something I did for free before I started making money. It's something I would do if I had all the money in the world.

N. R. Williams said...

I could dig becoming wealthy, but writing is a passion and an expression of myself. I would continue and while I don't wright mysteries, there are plenty of suspenseful and mysterious moments in my fantasy.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author

Alice Loweecey said...

Wantto and have to. I've been writing for 40 years through some surprising life twists. Sudden wealth might make me take a several-week break, but it woldn't stop me. Besides, if I don't write down their stories, the people in my head get testy.

I'd buy a house on a quiet lake, construct a force field that repels mosquitos, black flies, and wasps (the gobs of cash would cover all this, of course), wnd write, walk, and cook. Ahhh.

Unknown said...

Want to, definitely. I wrote for years without publishing any books, and would keep writing under any circumstances. My idea of hell is that Victorian short story (blanking on the name...?) where a man commits his wife to an asylum, and the doctors take her pencils and paper because they want her to "calm down."

Picks by Pat said...

If I inherited money or won the lottery I would have more time to write, so yes, I would definitely conyinue. In fact, I think I'd have more freedom to write exactly the book I wanted to, without worrying if it would sell commercially.