Will Write For Food

For the first time in nearly 30 years, I don't have a job. Actually, I still have a job, but not for long, having been caught up in the latest wave of layoffs in my little corner of the publishing world. That's the magazine corner, the corner where little ones keep walking up and bigger ones keep falling down.

So what do I do with my writing now? A reformed columnist, more cranky than snarky these days, can I hang with the blogosphere? Can blogging really be both creative and lucrative as my buddy Wade maintains? Won't I just be contributing to the critical mass of public self-indulgence?

As a young newspaper columnist it seemed okay somehow to write endlessly about the minute details of my life and opinion. That was like being part of a club - elitist, now that I think about it - of those privileged to foist their random thoughts on readers. Now that the bulk of the written word seems to be shifting to cyberia, you don't even need a newspaper to have a column. Everybody can get into the club, because everybody can have a blog.

So should I? With or without immediate remuneration? Based on the fact that I'm writing this, it seems the die is cast.