Monday, February 27, 2006

A Writer's Mandala

The mandala (so far):

(1) Means of fiction transmission
Mainstream professional .....Semi-professional ... Small or Independent Press ... Self-published (print or internet) (publication-on-reading?).... Vanity Press

(2) Personal drive (derived by money needs, ego, artistic conviction etc.?)
Publish at all costs (or at greatest reward?) .... Art For Art's Sake or kept in cupboard

(3) Perceived talent
Very skilled ... pedestrian.

(4) Market suitability of one's writing
Commercial (bestseller material) .... commercial mainstream .... jobbing writing ... uncommercial (acquired taste)

(5) Luck
Always in the right place at the right time ... always subject to sod's law.

(6) Legacy
Durable ... easily forgotten*

*example: typical airplane or beach reading.

(7) Fanbase
Millions .... Coterie
(for example a writer could have say 150,000 on a blog but another writer 5000 for a book).



Some of the progressions above are simply positive to negative, others not.
Whilst they do intersect, they do not conflate.

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