1)I agree with you: pro writing is a job, and jobs are not always fun. It’s similar to other crafts: A hobbyist woodworker can ditch a job that no longer interests her, whereas a pro finish carpenter must (or at least should) finish the job.

I used to work construction. But for the past 20 years,
I’ve been a full-time pro writer (of science non-fiction magazine articles, which are considerably easier to create than novels), producing well over a 1000 published articles and the book, “The Science of Heroes”. Like carpentry, I’ve been able to fall back on writing craft skills (and good relationships with my editors) when enthusiasm fails. And it does fail, regularly.

2) The pro versus fanfic writer distinction is misleading. (I’ve also written fanfic.) True, pro writers are paid cash while fan writers receive, at best, enthusiastic comments. But is being paid always better? Think about the last woman you saw tie a cherry stem in a knot with her tongue — do you really want to compliment her by suggesting that she’s paid for her lingual skill?

Pro writing does offer a minimal quality barrier: someone must be willing to pay for it. But beyond that… writers improve based on good critical feedback, good editing, and a lot of practice. Neither pro nor fanfic writing are set up to provide these regularly. I’ve found excellent (and lousy) editors in both the pro and fannish worlds.

Or, as Mark Twain once put it (it’s in the fence-painting scene in Tom Sawyer, IIRC), “Work is whatever a body is obliged to do, and play is whatever a body is not obliged to do.”

Or words to that effect.

I think that’s something that happens to almost everything you do once you start doing it because you MUST, and not just because you LIKE or WANT. I love to read, yet I groan at school readings –even when I would otherwise read it on my own. Same thing with art. Or maybe that’s just me.

For example, for a long time some of Nora’s publishers were reissuing her backlists as “twofers” or even just slapping a new cover and new title on them and her fans were getting frustrated that they were paying money for titles they’d already bought, under new names. Now, there is a special symbol that indicates that this is a “new” Nora Roberts that has never before been in print. That way, people who want to buy backlist can buy backlist and the diehard fans know that they are not paying money for books they already own.

It’s that kind of dedication to your fans that’s really amazing. I did a signing with Nora last summer at her husband’s bookstore in Maryland, and she looked at fans pics of their grandchildren, posed for pictures, chatted away — she’s such a role model.

Writing is a 2nd full time job for me, but I also have a regular day job that pays the bills, health care, etc.

As you said, you totally can’t wait for the muse. Deadlines loom, no matter what you’re working on and even though that really cool “other” project beckons, there’s a responsibility to finish the book contracted. That said, I totally wouldn’t do anything else…although, it would be great to be in Nora Roberts’ position.