Writing is not a good way to make money

I think most if not all writers have dreams of breaking it big at one point in their lives. We want to be the next J.K Rowling. We want to be successful enough that we can spend our days at our computer in our undies writing stories for a living. We want to be able to rake in millions and go to book signings and sit in bookshops surrounded by readers wanting to ask us questions. The reality is for most of us we will never achieve any of that. Writing is not a good career choice if you are coming into it to make money. Most earning little to nothing. There is a reason why the number one rule in writing is DO NOT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB. If you can earn enough from writing that you end up with a little extra in your wallet every fortnight congratulations you are doing better than most writers. The truth is most writers do not earn a living wage. Even fewer earn millions. Being a writer is not like working in a regular 9-5 job. You do not get a steady pay check. You spend hundreds of hours working on a book and then you throw it into a sea infested with sharks and hope to hell it does not get ripped to bits.

Success in writing depends too much on chance: What have you written? have you published it at the right time? what are people reading? is this the best book you could've written? could it have been better? What is trending right now? And so on and so on and so on. It is foolish to think that writing is a simple way to make money and it is wrong to tell others that it is a get rich quick scheme. The truth is if you make any money at all chances are it will be enough for a cup of coffee. Instead of having sky high dreams of being the next big author megastar my advice to writers would be to aim for something a bit more realistic: keep your day job but try and earn enough from writing so it can give you some extra pocket money whether that is a couple of bucks a week or a couple of grand a year.

Personally, I do not want to be super successful anymore. I think it would be too much pressure. I once read that JK Rowling was under so much pressure to finish the fourth Harry Potter book she considered breaking her arm to give herself a break. Yeah, that's fucked up. I don't want to be so successful that I cease to be a person and just become a cog in a machine that prints money. I mean it would be nice to make some money but I will settle for positive reviews online instead if I had to choose.

It is a long road toward success so enjoy the journey

Some people think that writing is easy. I mean it does sound simple. You sit down and write a story. How hard can that be? Surely it cannot take THAT long. But it does. People do not realize how long it takes to write a book or even a short story. You have to learn how to craft a story, how to make a character come alive, how to make a plot, how to create tension, how to edit, the correct use of grammer, and then you have to do the actual writing part. And once you've finished the story YOU have to edit it not someone else. Do NOT pay for a professional editor. As a writer you should be able to edit your own work. You need to learn how to do it. Paying for a professional editor is cheating. It would be like paying for a professional painter. Why do that when you can buy some paint and some brushes and do it yourself?

I've been writing for a long time and have yet to "have my big break" I am not a best selling author, my books are not available in the shops, and no one knows my name. Apparently, according to some, I should give up. I've been writing for longer than five years. Shouldn't I have been successful by now? Since I haven't does that mean something is wrong with me? Am I talentless? Am I wasting my time on books no one will ever read? Are my books boring? Are my characters dead? Is the problem me?

I don't believe in this idea of a "timeline for success" in fact I find it offensive. What people are saying is that I should give up. Firstly define success for me. Should I give up because I do not earn a living wage from writing? because I have not won an award? or because my books are not available in brick and mortar shops? I am only self-published. Is that not successful enough for you? Should I put down my pen because I do not have hundreds of followers on Twitter?

Publication is not a sign of talent and publishers are not Gods who know for certain what books are going to be successful and what books aren't. There are lots of writers who spend their entire lives working on one book that will become their lasting legacy. Others will publish half a dozen that will fail to take off and then they will publish one more and THAT one will be successful. And then there are those who are successful right out of the gate. Others might publish a book and it could languish on the shelves for decades before finally being embraced by readers.

What I am saying is just because I have not been successful yet does not mean that it is never going to happen for me. My next short story or novel could be the one that really strikes a cord with readers. Or it could be something I will write ten, twenty, or thirty years from now. I just don't know. I am not going to stop writing because it has not happened for me yet. I have faith in myself and my talent will only continue to grow and improve the more I write. I refuse to think that I am talentless because I've been in this game for over five years and have not struck it big. I am constantly learning, evolving, and improving. I am in this game for the love of writing not for the money. You would have to be nuts to think that writing is a good way to earn lots and lots of cash. I could earn more standing in the streets playing my husband's guitar.

I am so bored of comic book heroes

The Flash is showing on foxtell at the moment and the few glimpses I've had of it bore me to death. It's such a typical comic book cliche plot: insert young male nerd who is incredibly smart and is usually a scientist + random weather event or science experiment gone wrong = super hero! I think he gets hit by lightning and that gives him his speed powers and his super hero bod. How boring. Why does it happen? How does the lightning do that to him? I prefer super heroes who have magical origins like Superman or Sailor Moon. It's more believable than a random act of God turning them into a super hero. I think I prefer super hero worlds that are more magical because I can suspend my belief more. I don't like the comic book worlds as much where science is responsible for all the good and bad things that happen. I feel like it has been done to death and it just does not interest me anymore. Part of the reason I like Sailor Moon is because she is an ordinary, average girl. She is not really smart. She is not brave. She is just a student at school. She doesn't have huge aspirations. She just wants to be a housewife and be happy. In the ads for the Flash he says he is your "average forensic scientist" like that is a job that is really common. That bugs me for some reason. If you are a forensic scientist you are not normal in any way. You are clearly a very intelligent person and have managed to find success in a very small field. There isn't a huge need for forensic scientists. I know some people might think Usagi might not be a great role model because of her desire to be a simple housewife instead of getting a career. But I disagree. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be a housewife and a mother. There's nothing wrong with being a forensic scientist, either. I am just tired of comic book heroes always being made out of cookie cutter molds so to speak. This is why Buffy was so good. She was the opposite of a cliche. Instead of being the beautiful blonde being chased by monsters she chased them. It was fresh. It was new. It was exciting. We need more human super heroes. People like Buffy and Usagi. Because in real life most people have an average job and an average intelligence and might hesitate to put themselves in danger.

Fifty Shades of Grey has ruined the romance/erotica genre

I detest the term "Mummy porn" I also hate the term "Mummy blogger" why is it once you have had a child that as a woman you are always a mother first and whatever else you want to be second? Long before Fifty Shades of Grey came out the media had a weird fascination with romance writers. Every so often they would do a puff piece about some bored housewife who has gotten into dabbling in the romance genre and it has always irritated the shit out of me. I read one the other day about a female cop doing it and the article was called "Smutty Mummy" and it made references to fucking Fifty Shades of Grey (of course) as if that book was responsible for the sexual awakening of every woman on the planet.

Let me clear something up. Women like sex. Women like porn. Women like these things as much as men. And romance/erotica is NOT porn. "Mummy Porn" does not exist. Romance/erotica is very, very different to porn. Romance novels are not smut. It is not porn. They have a plot and characters. They are stories that revolve around romantic relationships. It is not just about the sex. Yes, all things do LEAD to sex. But it is not three hundred pages of endless fucking. How boring would that be? Porn is nothing but sex. A romance novel is exactly what it says it is: a romance. Not just a fuckfest. Just because something has sex in it does NOT make it porn.

I am not anti-porn I just grow tired of the giggling and finger pointing the media does when they do a puff piece about a romance writer. What is their fascination with romance writers? What about horror writers? or fantasy? or historical fiction? What is it about female romance writers that is so interesting to them? Men write romance as well. What would you call their books? "Daddy porn?"

I read Fifty Shades of Grey from beginning to end and I am very curious about the film and I'm actually looking forward to it. Will it be hot? Eh, maybe, but I reckon it'd way, way tamer than what people are expecting. If we see actual cock and balls I'll be very surprised. Fifty Shades of Grey was not terrible but it was not great either. It's good that it's gotten people interested in erotica but I really hate this idea that the media has that women did not like sex until that book came along. There is a big wide world of much better erotica fiction out there that women and men have been enjoying for a long, long time.

Bayonetta is an interesting twist on a strong female character

I bought myself Bayonetta in the Boxing day sales and just played 45 minutes of it for the first time. I already knew a bit about Bayonetta before hand. I knew she was over the top sexual to the point her actions in the game border on satire. Her body proportions are unrealistic. She has huge legs that go up to her arm pits and long arms. But that's okay. She carries guns in both hands and has some attached to her ankles. When she fights her clothes sometimes disappear and she goes completely nude. In one scene her clothes get ripped off her and she moans as her dress slides off her and her battle outfit appears. She has this one attack when she goes nude and her hair wraps around her body. I had my concerns before purchasing this game that Bayonetta's antics would add nothing to the game and just irritate me. But Bayonetta is different. She isn't just eye candy. She isn't a damsel in distress. She is strong, smart and powerful. She uses her sexuality as a weapon to distract her enemies. She is proud of how she looks. She struts around because she thinks she looks awesome. It's not to entice men. It's her saying "I am fucking great"

I saw a video on You Tube the other day of a 5 year old girl telling her Dad how she likes Princess Leia's slave costume in Return of the Jedi despite the fact that Leia is forced to wear it by Jabba. Her Dad tries to explain to her how it is bad to make her dress up like that against her will and that she would not like to be a slave. Her daughter says no, she would not like to be a slave, she would just get rescued and then would ask if she could continue to wear the dress. The comments in YouTube were as disgusting as you could expect full of trolls. A lot of them thought it was disgusting that the little girl thought it was okay to dress like Slave Leia and that she thought the look was pretty. Women should be more than eye candy for men. But then other people argued that the whole point of feminism was to let women decide for themselves what they wanted to wear without judgement from others. If that girl thinks that look is pretty and would like to dress like that then there is nothing wrong with that. She should be free to dress how she likes without judgement.

Which brings me back to Bayonetta. A lot of people think that Bayonetta is a bad role model for women because of how she dresses and acts but shouldn't Bayonetta, just like the little girl who likes Star Wars, be able to dress and act how she likes? I think people who have concerns about this game should play it for a little bit because they will see that this game is satire, for adults, and embraces both sexes.

You don't need a professional editor to prepare your book for publication

I just read this interesting article on Listverse about the top ten worst dreams to chase and number two was writing a novel. To be honest I was surprised it was not number one. The article said that it's very hard to get published and even then your chances of being successful is very slim as well. All true. But then they said that you have added expenses like a professional editor among things. You don't need to hire a professional editor to get your book up to publishable standards. If you have the money and want to do it and save yourself the time, sure, do it. But they charge through the roof to do something that you can do yourself. As a writer it is YOUR JOB to learn how to write creatively, to learn grammer and spelling, and what makes a manuscript publishable.

You should be able to do the job of an editor yourself. Read editing books, talk to other writers, do research on the internet, even take a class. But you should be able to do it yourself. It bugs me so much when people tell writers that getting an editor is an expense that they would have to endure because it's NOT. A decent writing teacher or person with experience in the industry would encourage their students to do their research and learn how to prepare a manuscript themselves. You are a writer. Write. Learn your trade. Don't spend money on services that you can do yourself if you can teach yourself.

Now if you are going to self publish there is one thing I do recommend that you go ahead and do and that is get a professional looking cover made. If you have the skills to do it yourself then save yourself the money but if you're like me and do not have the skills or equipment to do it then look around on the net and pay between $50 and $100 for a good cover. I would spend good money on a cover because people really do judge a book by its cover. I've seen far too many shitty ebooks out there that have covers that look like they were made in MS paint. Get something that looks so good it would not look out of place in a real life bookstore. Get something you can be proud of.

As for the rest of the expenses of being a writer all you need is a computer and an internet connection.

In defence of Tuxedo Mask

Tuxedo Mask is a unique character because he a lot of the time in Sailor Moon he plays the role of damsel in distress. Tuxedo Mask is one of the few men in Sailor Moon. He is not a regular human but he is not powerful like the Senshi are. He cannot control the elements and he doesn't have a magical weapon. He has healing abilities, can teleport, and has physic powers and is immortal. Doesn't sound too shabby but when you compare him to the Senshi he comes off as the weakest in the bunch. Tuxedo Mask is a unique male character because he often plays the role of the damsel in distress. It is the girls who have to rescue him a lot of the time.

Tuxedo Mask is there to provide moral and sometimes physical support to the girls. He gives advice (sometimes good and sometimes bad) he will often stand back and let the girls take control of a situation but when things get hairy he will also jump into the fray and do his best to help which is pretty brave of him considering how weak he is compared to Usagi and the others. In the original anime I don't think his character was written the best. I know Sailor Moon is all about girl power and that's great and is one of the reasons I love the show, but it would've been nice if Tux had been a bit of a stronger character and a bit more Usagi's equal. I would have liked to have seen him develop stronger powers. In the manga he does a little but never to the point where he becomes equally as powerful as the girls. And that becomes a sore point for him. He feels bad that he cannot help them more. He feels like he should be the one to protect them. His inability to be able to do that makes him feel like less than a man.

I don't have a problem with Tux swooping in to save Sailor Moon every once in a while. I know some people find it annoying especially when in the new anime it says in the opening song that they do not protection from men in the lyrics. But it's not like Sailor Moon is incapable of fighting on her own and needs saving every five minutes. Far from it. In the new anime she is ten times more brave and fit as a leader then she was in the older anime. There have been several moments in Sailor Moon Crystal when Usagi has really shocked me by being so confident and secure in herself as Sailor Moon. In the old anime she was frightened and cried a lot which was fine (but got old fast) it's nice to see her the complete opposite in the Sailor Moon Crystal.

One of the biggest criticisms about Tux is the difference in age between him and Usagi. He is 17 and she is 14. He is in high school and she is in junior high. I really get mad when people call him creepy, a pedophile, or a statutory rapist because of a measly THREE YEAR AGE DIFFERENCE. He is not a pedophile, for God's sake. There is nothing creepy or wrong about their relationship. Three years is a really small age gap. And the two of them do not even get serious and start having sex until way, way, later when both of them are older. This is not a 30 year old dating a teenager. It is a kid who is 3 years older. The fact that there are people out there who if this was a real life situation would report him to the police really, really, depresses me. They would destroy a young man's life over a stupid, tiny age gap. I'm pretty sure in a lot of places when the age gap between two kids is that small and that close that most police would've even charge the kids with anything. I think they're called Romeo and Juliet laws.

Now if you want to hear about a disturbing relationship then you should check out Cardcaptor Sakura. I love that anime but I've always been disturbed by the TEN YEAR OLD GIRL in that who is secretly engaged to her GROWN ADULT TEACHER. I mean seriously, what the hell? What sort of a grown man proposes to a ten year old girl? Now that is creepy and weird. Usagi and Tux are just a normal pair of kids.