In the Long Run

Lately I've been thinking a lot about character actors. You know, the actor whose name you can never quite remember but you can't stop watching when they're on screen. From the past, actors like Frank Morgan, Alan Hale, Mildred Natwick, Jack Elam and Walter Brennan will always get me to stop and watch a movie. These day it's actors like Marcia Gay Harden, Lance Hendriksen, Sam Elliott, and Ron Perlman who will make me sit back and watch knowing that I'll be in the hands of people who know their craft and will turn in an excellent performance.

These folks, with a few exceptions, were never famous in their day, but they worked consistently and for a longer stretch of time than those famous actors who usually hit the skids after a ten year stretch in the spotlight.

We writers are in much the same boat as actors. We're not all going to be that superstar whose books fly off the shelves and into the hands of eager readers, or have books that are made into movies, and have millions in our bank accounts. No, for the majority of us, our names will be vaguely familiar and people will smile as they recall a story or two that we wrote.

We're the "character" writers, the ones who fill up the middle of anthologies and magazines while the superstars hold the treasured spots and have their names on the cover. And that's not a bad place to be. Our work is smiled upon by editors because they know we can deliver a story that won't make their anthology or magazine suck.

As I look around the web I find many of these not so famous writers, still working and getting their stories out there for us to read. Never in the fame and fortune spotlight, but comfortable where they are. Who are they? Well, writers like Bill Crider, Joe Lansdale, Marcia Muller, Michael Bracken and Ed Gorman, just to name a few. Whenever I see their names, I stop and read because I know they'll weave me a good story and when I'm finished reading, I will have been thoroughly entertained by a well crafted tale.

Excellent company for any writer to be in, don't you think? And something better to strive for than one of those scarce slots on the superstar road of fame. Oh, I'm not knocking fame and fortune, it's a goal every writer is working toward, but learning your craft and turning in consistently good work is just as important and could be more satisfying in the long run of a writing career.