Phillip Kaplan’s Ask Pud blog is one I come back to from time to time for no other reason than it’s amusing and gives me a break from writing-related stuff for a few minutes. I ran across an interesting post recently that definitely applies to writers.

Just take out the phrases “professional musician” and “rock stars,”  insert the word “freelancer” or “writer” and you’ve got the gist. You can safely ignore the snarky bit about heroin–that’s a musician thing, not a writer thing. Besides, what freelancer has time for THAT nonsense? What follows is quoted from Ask Pud:

“Pud,

I came across your page after viewing your drumming videos on YouTube. I was wondering 1) what prevented you from pursuing a career in music? And 2) I’m a drummer too. How do I make it in the industry?
[snip]

Josh,

Most people take the path of least resistance. There are many exceptions to this rule, but unfortunately I wasn’t one of them. So:

Hard – Finding success as a professional musician and programming computers as a hobby.

Easy – Programming for a living and playing drums as a hobby.

I used to wonder the same thing myself. Over the years I’ve put various efforts into becoming a professional musician. But I always ended up dropping out. So I started reading interviews with rock stars, to figure out what made them so different.
I noticed one common theme (other than heavy drug use and alcoholism). And there are hundreds of examples, but the one that always stuck out in my mind was an MTV interview with Axl Rose from Guns N’ Roses.

Interviewer: What would you be doing if you weren’t a professional musician?

Axl: I dunno. I’d be working at a gas station or something.

So as for your second question, “how do I make it?” Take Axl’s advice, and don’t have ANY interests other than music, or they will derail you.

Also consider taking up heroin.

Rock on,
Pud”