Thursday, 20 June 2013

Excerpt from John Daulton's Blog

If you are not a writer, it makes no difference. I thoroughly recommend that you click on the link and read the whole piece on John Daulton's blog, here: What is a REAL Author Anyway?

What is a REAL Author Anyway? The Difference Between Perdurance and Endurance


I’m writing this for a writer friend of mine who is struggling right now as an artist. She’s hit a rough patch on the already rough road of writing, and now she’s wondering if she even is “a writer” at all. She’s wondering if she is “a real author” at all. And I’ve seen other people ask themselves this question a lot. I’ve seen them beat themselves up about the very same thing they love. I’ve seen long debates on writers forums about indie authors versus traditional authors, different people arguing about whether indie or “self-published” (a pejorative to many) are or are not “real” authors from the start. Some argue that people who write, no matter if published at all, are only “real” authors based on some abstract criteria they’ve dug up, while some others affix any number of arbitrary sales figures or income figures to their understanding of what it means to be a “real” author.
I think they are all missing the point.
Perdurance is a word I first heard in a metaphysics class. It’s also a word I am dedicating to my friend. And to all my fellow writer friends out there, whether I’ve met them or not. Perdurance is what I think my friend, and anyone else out there, needs to understand to find joy in their work, their art and their career. And since I know it’s not a commonly used word, or even a definitively defined one, I’ll explain it as best I can.

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