Dream a Little Dream.

Okay, so we all know that making a full time living as a novelist is rarer than making a full time living as a professional baseball player. But does that have to keep us from dreaming? Haven’t you ever fantasized about what you’d do if you could finally make enough from writing to support you and your family full time?

I love the image of Thoreau standing up to his neck in Walden Pond to commune with nature. I love the image of Stephen King heading up to the cabin by the lake to knock out the last few chapters.

So, if you could make enough money to write full time, what are your fantasies?

Here are a few of mine, in no particular order.

1) Write chapters without rushing. Maybe spend an hour or more on a couple of key paragraphs to get them just right. I hate feeling like I am always rushing when I write. I’d like to have the time to paint a verbal masterpiece.

2) I’d like have some little place where I could go for a few days to write. A little cabin by a lake or stream would be perfect. Just to be able to close out everything for a couple of days and focus on the story.

3) Do my own city to city press tour. I’d get a little motor home and have it wrapped to show off the cover of my new book. (A wrap is a removable ad, like what you see on busses sometimes.) Then if my book came out in the fall, I’d drive cross country from Utah to the North starting in September. From the North East, I’d go south to Florida and then take a southern route to California and back home. I’d schedule book signings, radio, libraries, etc. So I’d pull into a KOA. Hit the local city in my towed car, then come back to the camp and invite people to a barbeque. I’d take my family or wife, depending on when it happened.

4) I’d spend more time doing free presentations and writers groups and schools, to give people encouragement.

5) I’d stay up late at night writing chapters and eating things like salami and Ritz crackers when the urge struck.

What are yours?