I am a Blockhead

Samuel Johnson once stated that , "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." I admire Johnson, and I appreciate his acerbic wit in this statement, but I feel he does the blockheads (writers like me who have no great expectation of ever making and meaningful amount of money from their work) an injustice.

Weighing everything in terms of money is very much in vogue today, so it is only natural to judge those who spend considerable amounts of time and effort writing stories or poems that return almost nothing in terms of financial compensation as foolish or insane. As comprehensible as this view is, it entirely ignores and dismisses the more subtle and profound reasons why so many have put pen to paper.

If my primary motivation for writing had been money, I would have abandoned it decades ago. I have nothing against those who approach writing as a career - those who subscribe to writers' magazines, chase the latest trends, spend countless hours agonizing over marketing strategies, enroll in creative writing programs, attend festivals and signings to build a network of contacts, etc. I freely confess that I have done some of these things myself in the past - but try as hard as I might, I could never get too career-minded about writing and, in many ways, I feel this has been a blessing. 

What writing has given me and hopefully will continue to give me is an immense sense of contentment. It gives me contentment because it is a conduit through which I can examine and explore basic truths. I do not think I would be able to do that sincerely if my primary inspiration to write were to make it big.