"It's not how age affects me as a writer that's important. It's how it affects me as a man. Because I have shed many illusions about myself and my life and have accepted who I am and who I have been, my relationship to people and to my work is more sensible than it once was. I am no longer crippled by fears that I won't "make it." I know that "making it" is an illusion. The only important result of writing is the work itself.
I liken it to playing golf. Winning a tournament is fun, but trying to is not what keeps me playing. The real reward is striking the ball well, that feeling coming into my hands when I watch the ball sail down the fairway, when I watch it fall into the hole from 30 feet across the green.
If the reward of your work is something other than finding the right word, building a solid paragraph, turning out a well-crafted story, then you miss the true rewards of being a writer.
If I am true to myself, the results of my work will reflect the gains I have made over all the adversities that have plagued my life. I hope that readers grow from my work. It pleases me that others enjoy my stories. But I write, not to please others, but to please myself.
Jim Ingraham
following is a photo of Jim and his son at the piano!
Wow, man...wish I had Jim in my creative writing class; what an inspiration.
Find Jim online at http://www.jimingraham.com/ and look for Sahara Dust, Evidence of Evil and in future Duff Kerrigan.
As for my Titanic 2012 opus you can now get the first 14 chapters, 7 per each storyline of 1912 and 2012 for FREE, just click on it at http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/
