Man, that's a bummer. My dream is to make enough money with stupid gamedev bullshit to give cool people money to make cool art. ❤️

I’m absolutely in this mode as well! I also dreamed of being a writer as a kid and my dreams are getting smaller and smaller based on these same reasons.

This is such a fucking mood

Yeah. The slow (fast?) sanding down of any ambition whatsoever while pretending to lionize it is one of the more existentially troubling things about capitalism.

Yep. You are not alone.

yes

I sort of followed the same trajectory with music, (where the issues are arguably more extreme). All the arts are suffering. It sucks.

Yeah... feeling this.

I'm not big brained enough to come up with a solution to that whole "not wanting to market books/self pub author stuff etc* problem, but I feel like if there were some sort of "writer's co-op" where there was a centralized place for members to have their work shared and random kind people spending little bits of their time to help market things to make success for each other at least somewhat more possible it'd be a good start.

There's a growing group of comics creators doing that and it's what made me think of this. Here's a link to their site if you want to give it a look and spread a similar idea around to other writing buddies. https://cartoonist.coop/

Everyone I know calls writing a rich person's hobby. It's simply not feasible unless you were well off to begin with.

i feel this. maybe im also idealistic and bound to get a bit crushed later in life but—art and capitalism dont mix well. so while ill be overjoyed if whatever art i make in the future is profitable, i also want my most meaningful audience and contributions to be in building local, physical community in my city. like for music, for example, i of course wanna make a really refined album for people to have in their headphones, but i want my most meaningful work to be in creating third spaces where friends, political allies, ethnic communities, youth and anyone else can come to heal, relax, and be themselves by just singing some tunes together. same thing is true for cooking—i want to make spaces where my friends can find reprieve from the intensity of life. for me, i think the best shield from capitalism is centralizing the friends around you. that being said, bills still exist and i am still working to make those friends. long road ahead. wish u the best. <3

This is a mood that hits me every once in a while. I want to write but I want to do it in an ecosystem where I don't have to choose between obscurity or being exploited. The thought that the field might have no future except for the lucky few already at the top is hollowing.

I don't know, best I can do is hope that one of the smaller pushes against this manages to take root.