Motivation, please

Read this and it’s taken me a while to form any thoughts on the matter.

So are people really telling you that a life is a wilderness unless it includes a career in epic fantasy ? That seems to me to sum up the self-absorption of the genre… You ask me what you should do next. That’s in your hands. You’re what, early-to-mid-20s ? How much money do you want ? If you want real money, you don’t work in writing: you work in money. It’s not too late to start again. Or maybe you should write about money. Maybe you should write the fantasy of money!

Sadly, this is kind of true for the time being. For me, a mid-20s chap who works in publishing and knows this, and writes fantasy that is off the beaten track, it’s a little depressing. I give it about 5 years before the industry permits more experimental stuff, more indies coming into the game, but in the meantime, where’s the motivation to be more innovative, assuming one wants to write experimental fantasy? And who said commercial publishing is about innovation?

I’m a huge fan of MJH, to an unhealthy point, but I wonder, who would publish the Viriconium level stories today? Are audiences up for it? Were they at the time?

There’ll be plenty of free dinners for those young writers who want to be very different.