I just picked Forgotten Realms at random. My point is that there are indeed category and formula realms of fiction that you can spurt out without much thought or commitment or passion. Think also of the reams of chick-lit that are written to fulfill a contract rather than because the author genuinely has a story to tell.
So maybe the trick is to balance passion with marketability. Sometimes you have to make artistic compromises
I find this an interesting comment. It's like they have to be different. Why does there have to be an inherent dichotomy?
Please don't read more into my statement than I said, especially when I said something entirely different. I didn't say that there was necessarily an inherent contradiction. All I said was that sometimes you have to make artistic compromises, because sometimes there is a contradiction -- but not necessarily. This is why I said "sometimes". If your passion and your marketability line up, then you're set. Some authors, like Stephen King, have this down pat. If your passion is for something that won't sell in the publishing world, then you have to decide whether marketability is worth making some compromises.
And sometimes, of course, the passion is what makes the marketability. No one particularly cared about the plight of the poor working class in Victorian England until Dickens brought such passion to his own work.
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Date: 2006-04-20 09:35 am (UTC)Please don't read more into my statement than I said, especially when I said something entirely different. I didn't say that there was necessarily an inherent contradiction. All I said was that sometimes you have to make artistic compromises, because sometimes there is a contradiction -- but not necessarily. This is why I said "sometimes". If your passion and your marketability line up, then you're set. Some authors, like Stephen King, have this down pat. If your passion is for something that won't sell in the publishing world, then you have to decide whether marketability is worth making some compromises.
And sometimes, of course, the passion is what makes the marketability. No one particularly cared about the plight of the poor working class in Victorian England until Dickens brought such passion to his own work.