>>> Item number 36516 from WRITERS LOG9409B --- (60 records) ----- <<< Date: Thu, 8 Sep 1994 18:35:02 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: TECH: More Motivation... (more meanders from amongst the discards...) Ha! Suppose, for the sake of argument, that you are writing about a character who is a writer. Now, consider just exactly why this person wants to write. Is it the glory, the fame? How about the incredible golden fleece they expect to tuck into their bank account? Or is it because they promised their poor, deceased greatgrandforebear that they would make the world know the wonders of the family history--but since there aren't too many of those, they are making them up? What kind of goals does your character have? And what does their indefatigable, indefensible, and likely indecorous insistence on following their plots and pens into the future, no matter how many bales of rejection letters, no matter how low the bank balance, not even listening to those who say "give it up. get real! get a life!" and other scathing remarks... what does all that have to say to those of us who pursue the road less plotted in real life? Go ahead--write it up, and let yourself tell yourself all about it... Push or pull? Lots of tech stuff haggles endlessly about whether technology push--do it because you can!--or customer pull(demand)--do it because someone wants it!--is the appropriate reason for doing our little projects. Frankly, I think it depends--sometimes you do things the way the customer wants them (after all, who's paying for it?) and sometimes you do it fresh and new the way you can, then hope you can convince some customers that it really is worthwhile. (let's look in the dictionary?)...motivate 1. to give a motive or incentive to, to be the motive of...2. to stimulate the interest of, to inspire. motive n. that which induces a person to act in a certain way adj. producing movement or action... and (my favorite!) motley 1. diversified in color 2. of varied character... interest, inspiration...producing movement or action...of varied character... Offhand, I think we are. Interesting, inspirational (as long as we don't get too desperate), producing quite a bit of movement or action (perhaps without a great deal of coherence, but who needs a laser, anyway?) and as for motley, we are that. So, we have met the enemy, and they is us. We salute you, POGO! (hehehehehe...bill will yell about comic debacles now, and then I can play the debacles' advocate...ain't we got fun?) incidently, does anyone have any idea why I would have collected our Giant Food Store receipts from 1980? and still be hauling them around? Amazing... this is packrattitis extremis... tink