Writing my well be Cory's full time job right now, but I doubt it. Doctorow operates in a world where one can more or less be paid for being *something like* famous. He's basically a professional futurist, with a specialty in intellectual property. So there's money from books, but also speaking engagements and columns. (I gather those can make a huge difference in annual income.)
He's basically a living example of Whuffie -- he's essentially living the system he described in *Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom*. To be fair: He continues to get those gigs and opportunities not just because he's well-known, but because people regard his opionions as having value. However, it would be unrealistic to suppose that being well-known didn't also play a major role in getting those gigs. (It's a hot topic in some forums. I don't see these as negative observations, or see it as negative to point out that he's a fantastic self-promoter [especially since he seems to manage to avoid stepping on other people to do it]. But a lot of people see self-promotion as evidence of him being some kind of a shill.) So all that activity he's describing is actually part of his living. The blogging is self-marketing, in a sense -- participation in a network that feeds him new income opportunities and increases his name recognition and, to the extent that his blog posts are regarded as having value, his reputation -- at the same time that it's also participation in an activity that stimulates ideas. He's lucky, I'd say, in that. It's not a mode of sustenance that an unlimited number of writers could participate in, even if they were constitutionally suited to it. Sterling is doing much the same thing, BTW, with a specialty in design. On 2009-01-14, Pat Rapp <[email protected]> wrote: > > 10 blogposts a day probably are not much of a big deal if someone has > eliminated the biggest time suck that most of us suffer from: the 8+ hours > a day we spend earning a living. Presumably, writing is Doctorow's full-time > job, so he can spend 20 minutes on his novel and then he still has all day > to get other writing projects done. And treating writing as a ful-time job, > rather than something one does on the side, likely helps him to avoid the > web distractions that he talks about. We wouldn't go into work each day and > surf the web on company time. If we look at our writing as "company time" I > bet we'd spend less time goofing off. > > Still, this is good advice for those of us who do spend the day away from > our word processors in order to get the bills paid. Twenty minutes a day, > once developed as a regular habit, can be more productive than I'd have > thought. I hadn't thought of it in terms of a novel per year. And forced > stop points in mid-process may help you to stay focused -- kind of like "Ok, > I've only got 20 minutes so I have to get this scene cranked out." And, like > Fred Flintstone when the whistle blows, we can hurry off to the next thing > without feeling guilty about not finishing. Quitting time is quitting time. > Period. > : ) > > You can't train people to not email you - you have to just close your > email, browser, IM client, etc. and open them when your scheduled "human > contact" time rolls around. > > > ----- Original Message ----- *From:* Alicia Henn <[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Sent:* Wednesday, January 14, 2009 6:03 AM > *Subject:* Re: How Cory Doctorow gets writing done > > 10 blogposts a day?? And still writing other things? That's amazing. He > has some good tips at avoiding distraction, but how does one "train" family > and friends to not email or IM you at certain times? > Still, I'd be willing to try it. I think I'd need some sort of computer > feedback, maybe a keyboard that would shock the user in a programmable way > ;-) > > Alicia > On Jan 13, 2009, at 10:48 AM, Jonathan Sherwood wrote: > > For those of you who haven't seen it - How Cory Doctorow gets writing done: > > > http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2009/01/cory-doctorow-writing-in-age-of.html > > -- > Jonathan Sherwood > Sr. Science & Technology Press Officer > University of Rochester > 585-273-4726 > > > > > > > -- eric scoles ([email protected]) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
