I recently came across a collection of cartoons from Stephan Pastis’ “Pearls Before Swine” comic strip that had me rolling in the aisles. It’s titled “The Art of the Writing Process“. He frequently draws about writing and the creative life, and this collection brings together some of his funnier musings about the field.
To whet your appetite, here’s just one of them, from April 13th, 2014.
There are many more at the link. Click over there and enjoy!
Mad Genius Club 
That’s one advantage to writing “mere” genre fiction vs. academic literary fiction or trying for “the great American novel.” All we try to do is entertain people instead of changing the world or winning academic accolades. And pay the bills, which is more than enough pressure, thank you!
The world would be better if all those people trying to “change the world” changed themselves first.
And I’d say most great literature was genre fiction in its day.
It sure was! Dickens wrote to pay the bills and entertain an audience.
In order to earn money, he needed to keep the audience awake and engaged.
No audience, no money.
Makes you wonder where the money comes from these days for all those dreadful, ‘I threw it across the room’ books that sell like 150 copies TOTAL yet get all the press about how wonderful they are.
Or the multimillion dollar advances given to politicians for books nobody will ever want to read.
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The Capitol is OUR house. Congresscritters are just the help.
From the books that actually sell, of course.
Nothing prevents you from trying to change the world or win academic accolades by writing genre fiction. The second may be harder, but the first is probably easier. (Relative to litachur, at any rate.)