Lots of people make a living from writing. Making a living from genuine talent with the freedom to write about what you fancy is much rarer. The only person on rof who as ever stood out as to me as having that sort of talent is pre covid Clergs.
Laz has the energy and levity to keep you turning the pages tho. I especially enjoyed his Senior Syndicated Credit Facility work from the early noughties. Tight, crisp, yet satisfyingly weighty.
Laz falls into the category of being able to make a living from it if he finds the right market and niche. I dont really know the guy, but have said for years from what knowledge rof permits he would be happiest writing about football.
I’d quite like it if Laz could post some of his famous drafting on here and we could all try and finesse it for him like the pathetic weasels we undoubtedly all are
clergs can definitely turn a phrase, but in terms of Just Being Paid to Write About Stuff I’d say the market leader here is Mutts. Clergs is a wisecracker, she needs something to play off. Not that extraordinary writing talent is actually necessary to hold down a role as a free-ranging columnist; see eg Giles Coren. I’d be as good a columnist as he is, easily. But that’s not saying a vast amount.
It’s easy to garner praise for your writing on here if you don’t post much. If you post a lot, then elegance takes second place to just banging your point down in black orange and white, quickly and with brutal efficacy so you still have at least some time in your day to get work and life done.
I had dinner with a writer last night. He fooking loves his job. But he treats it as such. He's got a second home nearby - a writing apartment and he spends 7hrs there, 5 days a week. The level of discipline needed to make it work is huge. And you must make yourself do it. Constantly and consistently. That may be your downfall.
If there was a market in writing arch reviews about porn - generally making serious philosophical points in a superficially clever way but occasionally dropping into Bateman-style parody - Laz would be a professionally satisfied and successful man.
I think he and Mutters are the best writers on rof. Although Mutters - as he says - can write with substance about almost anything and really bring it to life. Whereas Laz is basically a nihilist.
Clergs writes good zingers but there's no evidence of any structure.
Here's the thing Laz. In the ways that matter, we know you. Your conviction that you have no agency is a crippling bottleneck for transformative action. Watching your ambitions circle around themselves and whizzing out below that bottleneck has been an established ritual of this board since long before I joined.
I thought I was paying you a compliment Laz but reading it back it doesn't seem that way. I prize the ability to write in a distinctive voice very highly so it was a compliment in my eyes.
Unwalt: Laz has the same issue many (most) of us on here have, namely that legal hustling pays for a nice house and holidays and a car that doesn’t break down every 6 months.
It’s a massive gamble to walk away from it, so most just fantasise. Doesn’t make us all Walter Mitty.
Now Laz does have a mrs who is a big $$ baller (according to RoF lore, no idea if true), so (if true) he does have a better chance than most to make the break.
For sheer originality it’s me. In fact I might be the only RoF poster ever to have evidenced originality. You don’t have to like my output to see that.
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We write emails every day m8.
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I write beautiful documents too
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Some days it’s all I do.
If you mean write whatever the fook I want for a living those people are few and far between.
They are to be envied, although I suspect it’s semi-penury and rather lonely, unless you can nail the Norman Mailer gig.
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who goes into it not aiming to mail the Norman Mailer gig tho
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Lots of people make a living from writing. Making a living from genuine talent with the freedom to write about what you fancy is much rarer. The only person on rof who as ever stood out as to me as having that sort of talent is pre covid Clergs.
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Clergs does have a certain stylistic zing.
Laz has the energy and levity to keep you turning the pages tho. I especially enjoyed his Senior Syndicated Credit Facility work from the early noughties. Tight, crisp, yet satisfyingly weighty.
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Have you tried using dictation?
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Laz falls into the category of being able to make a living from it if he finds the right market and niche. I dont really know the guy, but have said for years from what knowledge rof permits he would be happiest writing about football.
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I’d quite like it if Laz could post some of his famous drafting on here and we could all try and finesse it for him like the pathetic weasels we undoubtedly all are
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clergs can definitely turn a phrase, but in terms of Just Being Paid to Write About Stuff I’d say the market leader here is Mutts. Clergs is a wisecracker, she needs something to play off. Not that extraordinary writing talent is actually necessary to hold down a role as a free-ranging columnist; see eg Giles Coren. I’d be as good a columnist as he is, easily. But that’s not saying a vast amount.
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Clergs, Sizzler and Bailey have the best "voices" in terms of their prose style, I find.
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It’s easy to garner praise for your writing on here if you don’t post much. If you post a lot, then elegance takes second place to just banging your point down in black orange and white, quickly and with brutal efficacy so you still have at least some time in your day to get work and life done.
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The special ability Giles C has is being incredibly well connected.
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tru dat
his writing is dull
not terrible, but dull
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I like lots of Mutters posts but he needs a good editor….
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that’s my point really
the less you write, the easier it is to look like a writer
ironically
when he writes, mutts writes a lot
clergs is zingy but, like all wisecrackers, only if she’s gifted something to zing at
like paul merton’s comedy
me, you’re right - I require content, a theme
I’m a much better writer than Jonathan Wilson, though, and he makes a good living from writing about football.
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That (former?) partner at bakers done a book about going to America didn't he? Not great but I paid for it just cos.
Just bang sthg out sun and you'd profit just cos of the Lazbrand. Ur a top writer.
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I had dinner with a writer last night. He fooking loves his job. But he treats it as such. He's got a second home nearby - a writing apartment and he spends 7hrs there, 5 days a week. The level of discipline needed to make it work is huge. And you must make yourself do it. Constantly and consistently. That may be your downfall.
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very unlikely to be my personal downfall on this score as I have excellent discipline and attention span. Could be a problem for others tho
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Yes, quite.
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You don’t know me.
Might go and look for a writing office today actually, to get up and running. Best strike while the iron’s hot!
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My partner is a writer and he falls into the ‘writes
about whatever he wants’ category
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If there was a market in writing arch reviews about porn - generally making serious philosophical points in a superficially clever way but occasionally dropping into Bateman-style parody - Laz would be a professionally satisfied and successful man.
I think he and Mutters are the best writers on rof. Although Mutters - as he says - can write with substance about almost anything and really bring it to life. Whereas Laz is basically a nihilist.
Clergs writes good zingers but there's no evidence of any structure.
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ad hominem nonsense and your strange obsession with pornography aside, you’re certainly right that I could make a living writing
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Here's the thing Laz. In the ways that matter, we know you. Your conviction that you have no agency is a crippling bottleneck for transformative action. Watching your ambitions circle around themselves and whizzing out below that bottleneck has been an established ritual of this board since long before I joined.
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I thought I was paying you a compliment Laz but reading it back it doesn't seem that way. I prize the ability to write in a distinctive voice very highly so it was a compliment in my eyes.
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Unwalt: Laz has the same issue many (most) of us on here have, namely that legal hustling pays for a nice house and holidays and a car that doesn’t break down every 6 months.
It’s a massive gamble to walk away from it, so most just fantasise. Doesn’t make us all Walter Mitty.
Now Laz does have a mrs who is a big $$ baller (according to RoF lore, no idea if true), so (if true) he does have a better chance than most to make the break.
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No Unwalt, I’m afraid none of you know me in any meaningful way. I have no problem whatsoever realising my ambitions ta
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For sheer originality it’s me. In fact I might be the only RoF poster ever to have evidenced originality. You don’t have to like my output to see that.
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You mean the original way you post 30 or 40 times about a battery car that you think you might want to buy?
If so then spare us from what you consider to be unoriginal.
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