I'd say there is no "right" motivation for writing, and as someone who writes strictly for myself, a comment like that sounds *terribly* elitist to me.
Your writing reaches a broad audience, touches a great many people, helps you pay the bills. My writing is a part of me that is *mine*, helps me work out issues that I'm uncomfortable talking about to others or posting online, and means a great deal when I am comfortable enough with someone to share it. How dare *anyone* tell me I'm wasting my time? Keep your values with you and off of me, thanksverymuch.
Note: Less referring to you specifically, Ms. Brennan (you seemed to be speaking in jest), and more in general - because jokes aside, that attitude certainly exists, and is part of the problem. Mostly I'm saying (as I think Kitsune has said in an earlier thread) I wish that the myriad reasons people write were accepted and not arranged in some sort of false hierarchy. I respect professional writers, the way they write, and their reasons for doing so -- why does that seem a one-way street?
$0.02
Your writing reaches a broad audience, touches a great many people, helps you pay the bills. My writing is a part of me that is *mine*, helps me work out issues that I'm uncomfortable talking about to others or posting online, and means a great deal when I am comfortable enough with someone to share it. How dare *anyone* tell me I'm wasting my time? Keep your values with you and off of me, thanksverymuch.
Note: Less referring to you specifically, Ms. Brennan (you seemed to be speaking in jest), and more in general - because jokes aside, that attitude certainly exists, and is part of the problem. Mostly I'm saying (as I think Kitsune has said in an earlier thread) I wish that the myriad reasons people write were accepted and not arranged in some sort of false hierarchy. I respect professional writers, the way they write, and their reasons for doing so -- why does that seem a one-way street?