Why don't you settle down? Why don't you stop jumping on my opinion in a pedantic and bluntly aggressive way? Your problem is what exactly? Because clearly we agree on the actual content. You are saying the same things I said. So why did you get up in my face about holding the same opinion as you? Because I expressed it in a form that might make it useful to other people? Because I forgot to preface it with the word 'generally'? Because that is a childish word game that means nothing.
See post above. Sometimes people will disagree with you. I'm sorry if you took my post of disagreement as some sort of personal insult--it wasn't meant that way. I just disagreed. I continue to disagree. You getting really aggressive and weird is not going to make me agree.
How can you possible take 'passionate for a larger goal' and take that not to be a form of passion generally? The words are right there. It is a form of passion. It is the adult form of passion. It is taking the long view, it is embracing deferred gratification, it is planning for tomorrow. And that is exactly the kind of passion I said that is healthy and that we need. I was actually complimenting you (and myself but also you) for being able to harness you passion to the long haul like that. It is not easy. Huge numbers of people here struggle with that. There are people in this thread who say exactly that. I was in no way saying that the long haul excludes passion. I said quite literally the opposite of that. I don't know how you can misunderstand me quite so completely. I said explicitly that I was in middle between 'all about passion' and 'all about craft'. And that's the position I took. I said you need both. I said that mixing the two together; using your passion to drive you and your craft to give you perspective is how you get the best results. And for the record; you response to me had nothing to do with my definition of passion. You told me I was wrong because I dared to say that, in my opinion, we should strive to balance passion and craft. That was the only thing you said. You told me I was wrong because MY approach wasn't universal. I never suggested it was. It was just my opinion. It's incredibly aggressive to attack a reasonable opinion like that. It's incredibly hostile to not even countenance someone else's point. It's ever worse when you then go on to actually agree with that point some later. That's why I'm pissed off. Because you gave me a totally uncalled for telling off for my opinion, then stated that opinion as your opinion. That's hypocritical and it's aggressive. You screamed at me for no reason. Don't tell me to calm down when I scream back.
If there are posts worthy of a report, report it and let us mods deal with it. Please keep this civil. I don't care whether anyone here feels screamed at, you are not to 'scream back '. You are to take it to the mods by reporting any posts you feel have broken the rules. If you are not able to disagree amiably, then the best course of action is keep silent and/or report.
To be in a passion you Good may do But no Good if a Passion is in you - William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
I think the fact that Bayview's passion seems to have vanished is evidence that it's not sustainable. If you can keep it up long enough to get a novel out into the world, or two, or twenty, it stops eventually. When it does, you need something other than passion to keep you going. In Bay's case, that's the dosh. If you can point me to someone who kept that fever burning for their whole career, who never needed a deadline, because they enjoyed writing so much, then go for it. I don't think they exist. Rowling, despite being rolling (heh) in money by the time Prisoner of Azkaban was released, hit such a wall that she refused to accept a contract with a deadline.
Yeah, I haven't been able to balance passion with discipline - my passion is gone. I still enjoy writing, more or less, but not in a passionate way.
I'm a little worried that I'll lose interest in writing if I accomplish my goal (having a successful traditionally published book). That's been the pattern throughout my life--it's the challenge that motivates me, and once the challenge is gone I lose interest. I realised today I'm at that point in my job. My goal was to take over a poorly performing department and make it successful. I did that, so now I need a new challenge. So far I've kept moving the writing goalpost: first, finish a novel. Second, get an agent. Third, get it published. Fourth [before #3 is completed because this industry is slower than an arthritic tortoise], write another book. Maybe I can keep repeating that sequence forever more and it'll be okay.
