tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2969692095417068213.post5116135870744484686..comments2023-10-06T03:38:57.737-05:00Comments on Stock Photography Museum: Exhibit 17.13A. Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12217414871546838023noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2969692095417068213.post-69020971243824593602009-03-25T22:16:00.000-05:002009-03-25T22:16:00.000-05:00Hmm. Well, I would say there's no dichotomy there....Hmm. <BR/><BR/>Well, I would say there's no dichotomy there. Teach high school. Don't teach high school. Write literary fiction. Write popular fiction. None of these things (even the last two) are really mutually exclusive. <BR/><BR/>Nor are they necessarily things one should ever have to resign oneself to. The only bad choice, at least as far as writing is concerned, would be to do something that doesn't interest you (a different, smarter person would probably substitute "make you happy" for "interest you"). <BR/><BR/>The rest of it just stuff (stuff to pay the bills, stuff to satisfy your ego, stuff to keep you busy, etc.) Most of the time the writing is just stuff, too, but if you're writing what you want to write, it will at least be <I>your</I> stuff. And if it's your stuff, you've found a way to put a little bit of yourself into the world. <BR/><BR/>I have no doubt most people find something similarly special in their lives (more than a few from teaching high school, no doubt). <BR/><BR/>It's a good thing though, the only true thing, really, and it exists outside of publications or conceptions of "literary greatness" or even whatever one does for a paycheck. <BR/><BR/>You do that, you'll be alright.<BR/><BR/>Thus ends the first installment of my new favorite segment on this blog: Adam Peterson answers random, anonymous questions. <BR/><BR/>I'm not in any way being facetious. I enjoyed this.A. Petersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17297380664498322267noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2969692095417068213.post-14858747179842040532009-03-25T16:14:00.000-05:002009-03-25T16:14:00.000-05:00Do you think that if one is an aspiring writer and...Do you think that if one is an aspiring writer and his or her writing style is more like that of Meg Cabot (author of <I>The Princess Diaries</I>) than of anyone else, he or she should abandon all dreams of literary greatness and resign himself or herself to a life of prosaic high school teacherhood?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com