Why I'm Doing This

I should begin this post by apologizing for my previous posts, not a word of which I meant. The truth is, I'm afraid, that I was telling you what I thought you wanted to hear about the nature of the publishing industry and writing in general. The truth is that I have been searching throughout this whole grad school thing for the reason that I'm doing it in the first place, and I think I have finally found it: I need -- as a drunk needs booze, as a junkie needs heroin -- to write with the same passion that any number of books have to taught me to, and I need to find a way to make whatever talent I have pay my bills.

Because I am paying so much for graduate-level education, I need to write in such a way that promotes the publishing industry, or at least makes the idea of majoring in technical/professional writing sound attractive. Well, here's the truth, boys and girls:

*The most commonly available steady writing job you can find is an exploitative freelance contract (have fun with that $100 per gig!).

*If you thought that publishing internships that didn't turn into actual jobs were fun in college, you're gonna love grad school!

*You really should have majored in accounting.

So, now that you know all this, do you still want to waste your time dealing with books and writing? If not, major in something else. If so... welcome to the club, because I want nothing more than to lead the pack of folks who have chosen to carry on writing in any way that they can, regardless of how much it will pay.

As a wiser man than I once said, a life without passion is not worth living.