Having a Rough Time Financially? Go Write a Book
You won’t be the first to write his way out of money trouble I never thought of writing as a means of making money until I went to listen to a talk by Geoffrey Archer, the British novelist who went straight into politics and the House of Commons after he graduated from university. He told a story of how he was a casualty of a fraudulent investment scheme which cost him his family fortune and left him penniless and without any skills he could use to earn a living. He considered himself a great story-teller so he sat down, wrote a best-seller and then proceeded to make a fortune from writing books.
Harry Potter This week public events were held in cities around the world to celebrate the opening of the final Harry Potter movie. Forbes magazine also shows J. K. Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, to be worth 1 billion dollars. This is a remarkable story.
J. K. Rowling Rowling is famous for her “rags to riches” life story, in which she progressed from living on benefits to multi-millionaire status within five years. As of March 2011, when its latest world billionaires list was published, Forbes estimated Rowling’s net worth to be US$1 billion. Forbes ranked Rowling as the forty-eighth most powerful celebrity of 2007, and Time magazine named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom.
What happened? This is pure speculation on my part. I reckon Rowling, who was a writer at the time, had an idea of a story plot that she thought was different and would appeal to a young readership. Every fiction writer dreams of having an idea like that. She began writing, liked what she wrote, read it, edited it, re-read it, re-edited it and then simply sailed along with the story as her imagination, now self-fueling, carried her. The result: a winner beyond her wildest dreams. Without being unkind, I would call it the perfect fluke, a shot in a million, a once in a lifetime. And the more you write it, the wilder and better it gets. The readers get carried along on the same wave, demanding more and demanding wilder.
The comics Remember the comics, Superman, Batman and company? They were of the same genre, something that lit the imagination of the readers to the point where they couldn’t get enough. And how about Ian Fleming’s James Bond, whose movies have been pulling in crowds since 1954?
Try it Why don’t you try it? You too may have a brainwave, a scene flashing onto your mental screen for a split second, just long enough for you to grab. You will see a fleeting shot of a schoolboy zooming past on his broomstick or an image of a Superman holding back the Titanic from the iceberg with one hand.
How do you start? I’m not sure, but I’m convinced it’s not by sitting on the porch with a cold beer in hand staring out at nothing and waiting for something to flash across the screen.
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