Kind of selfish of me I know but what the heck.So the question? - Could your life withstand the pressure of real fame?
So let's say you get lucky enough to become the next big thing like twilight or potter. Could your life to date withstand all the scrutiny you would receive.
I've thought about this a couple of times because I've had a pretty colorful life so far, and the thought of old friends, girlfriends, and enemies coming out and relating my entire past could be quiet a story in itself, but I could only imagine what would be said by all those who I didn't end on the best of terms with.
So what do you think. If you had hundreds of thousands of people/press searching out every skeleton in your closet do you think you could handle the tempest?
It's one of the only things that gives me pause on this road I'm on. It's that - what if I do succeed? Do I really want to subject my life - my friends and family to the wolves? Then I think - well, yah. Kind of selfish of me I know but what the heck.
Let me know your thoughts,
W.
Probably one of the reasons I have so much trouble writing villains. 
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited December 01, 2010).]
the only problem with that is i dont think editors would want to publish my stuff if it had a by line of 'eyegore.'
also i don't foresee myself writing anything for the teen market. which seems to the group that 'just has to know everything about their favorite xxxx'
Bring it.
I'm less worried about skeletons than I am about the pressure to work MORE that fame would bring (currently when I'm actively writing it's very much a part-time gig while I am the primary at-home parent and juggle consulting work on the side.) I'd also want my children's privacy respected, though I'm a bit of two minds about this, as I do discuss various child-related things on my personal blog. However, I always do so with an eye toward if they were reading it, how would they feel (very often it's me bragging about them!) This is my general perspective with online communications of all sorts - I want to keep up appearances and make a good impression/act professionally/respectably. I think that will help when (notice the choice of word, lol) fame hits. 
Can't wait to be famous so I can monumentally screw up, go to rehab, and get my own reality show.
I think I am willing to take those chances.
[This message has been edited by MikeL (edited December 01, 2010).]
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I've thought about this a couple of times because I've had a pretty colorful life so far, and the thought of old friends, girlfriends, and enemies coming out and relating my entire past could be quiet a story in itself, but I could only imagine what would be said by all those who I didn't end on the best of terms with.
[This message has been edited by MartinV (edited December 02, 2010).]
I believe we all have our fame, or infamy, among those with whom our lives intersect. I've been surprised by it. I attained notoriety in college as the university paper's cartoonist, a shadow of Gary Trudeau. I made some laugh and others very angry. As a physician, I similarly have a certain amount of fame (and a minute amount of infamy) from my patients. People treat you different and have different expectations of you when you are a physician. The profession almost necessitates a persona that provides the patient the comfort to share their fears and intimate concerns. I accept this. I've trained doctors in my specialty and, meeting them in later years, I find they too have created a persona of me to which they offer a degree of respect, even when their professional achievements have exceeded my own.
For all these groups of people I am what they require me to be.
And this is the price of "fame."
What keeps one sane is having a core group of family and friends who know you, flaws and all, love you anyway, and let you be just you. Praise HaShem, I am blessed with this.
Respectfully,
Dr. Bob
I've learned during my running of this obstacle course called life that certain personality types will grab for their own level of attention and fame at the expense of others, whether their claims match reality or not. Who here hasn't been that type of a victim at least once in their life?
Just like what awaits us after our physical bodies expire, we really have no true concept of what fame will be like until we actually get there. So, if fearing what somebody might do or say against my life is the only thing short-circuiting my efforts to become a successful author, I would remind myself that the dirt digging could happen against me even without my having achieved fame, then go right back to perfecting the craft that will lead me to that fame.
S!
S!
I'd settle for being known among the knowledgable---i. e. "being a successful writer." I took a glance at this morning's USA Today best-seller list---I don't have the time or patience to break it down and eliminate all the books-by-famous-people-from-other-walks-of-life and such...but there are several works by writers whose works I've seen around, but who I know nothing about, not even what they look like. I'd settle for that.
(There are at least three writers on the list who, I know, don't have to bother with any aspect of fame anymore, because they're dead. I don't know if that's worth it...)
Most of those with 'fame' are cinema and show biz celebrities. We don't know if they were messed up before fame. Some people who have hit the jackpot were driven jackasses before. They get all the publicity.
Look at others and their fame? We only see those that make it into print. I don't think you can generalize that everyone will turn into a monster. I don't think I would, although don't ask my wife. She may well think I'm a monster at this very minute and no amount of money will change that.
Driven people often succeed more than non-driven people and the character traits that promote the driven behavior may very well be accentuated with the higher degree of resources and the addledness of adoration.
Yeah, there are a couple things in my past I wouldn't appreciate the whole world knowing-notice I said a couple-but that wasn't my fear. The money would be good but I don't want the media following me around or always being recognized on the street. Now and then wouldn't be bad, but not all the time. And there's the danger of getting a big head and losing touch with who I am.
I don't know either even though I know I have seen a couple pictures of her. But I bet a very large percentage of her fans know.
There are a couple of writers I would know on sight. Jim Butcher, unless he cuts his hair, Isaac Asimov if he was still alive. Maybe Lisa Shearin. She has half a doze pics of her on her web site and she is kinda unique looking. I don't mean that in a bad way.
Others like David Weber and Glen Cook I wouldn't know even if I turned around suddenly and ended up face to face with either one.
But even on a mid level it could happen. I think I could live with it okay if it ever did happen. As I said before now and then. It's the huge fame level I wouldn't be sure about.
Personally, I find the notion of fame of the sort that would make me recognizable to people I don't do business with extremely distasteful. But fortunately, I can file that in the same bin as the possibility I might be mauled to death by an escaped lion.
On a more serious note, I gather Margaret "Gone With the Wind" Mitchell determined that her life would not change because of the fame that descended upon her after "GWTW" was published...and one of the results of that determination was that she never wrote another word of fiction---which had not been her intent at the start.
Will J. K. Rowling ever publish anything else?
Frankly, fame seems like one of those issues you trade up for, and I'd do it gladly. There are plenty of skeletons in my closet, but I could care less because if I become known enough that people drag them out, I'll be rolling in my millions laughing at them. And that's a problem I can live with
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Rowling has published about as many novels as Hemingway.
This is not about talent - it is about success. The two are somewhat related, but not entirely. If one does not believe he/she will become successful, it will most suredly not happen. Maybe Rowlings and Meyer did not imagine the degree of success they would end up having, but I guarantee that they believed they could do what they were attempting. I imagine them writing their stories and saying - "Wow! This is good. People are going to love this!"
Do I want fame? Some, yes, absolutely, because I want to be successful as a writer. I want to write something great! And I do believe in myself and my ability. This isn't egotism; it is what I need to continue. Otherwise, I'd just quit. There is no one in my life who believes in me more than I do. Most think I'm wasting my time. Believing in yourself is what it takes to accomplish anything you really want.
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In my opinion, one must have a strong and sincere belief in oneself and his/her abilities in order to succeed at anything. When someone enters any pursuit thinking "I might get lucky" or "I might be good enough for that", that person is doomed for failure.
Ok, Yoda Phil, I get it - "Do or Do Not. There is no try."
What would star wars have been like if Luke would have been going down the trench having second thoughts, "Hey, you know, I'm not sure I can do this. Everyone's shooting at me. Darth Vader's breathing down my back - Use the force luke! - Yah, but I'm not really good with the force right now, and if I do manage to blow up the Death Star think of all the fame and preasure I'll be under - I'll probably have to become a Jedi and be celibate for the rest of my life--but who knows maybe if I blow up this base station I'll get lucky with that cute princess before I start the Jedi life. I don't know--should I do this? How badly do I really want to be a Jedi? There is a wide open job market for Jedi's right now. Could be a good carrier move. Though fighter pilot doesn't seem like a good occupation since I'm the only one left alive right now! I don't know--What do you think R2? (Blam, Blam, Blam!) Holy Cr*p! They just blew R2's head off. Guy's--I'm really having second thoughts about this now.
Not quite the same story.
W.
[This message has been edited by walexander (edited December 05, 2010).]
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I should go to the circus more so I can start worrying about being mauled by an escaped lion? Why, when I can stay home and worry about germs instead?
Loins are much more interesting than a boring germ--not to mention quicker.
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n my opinion, one must have a strong and sincere belief in oneself and his/her abilities in order to succeed at anything. When someone enters any pursuit thinking "I might get lucky" or "I might be good enough for that", that person is doomed for failure.
This is not about talent - it is about success.
Got a point there. I never really figured it was a matter of getting lucky. I thought my talent would get me enough fame to keep me being able to publish the books I write. Some extra money on top of that, someday enough to quite my job, and maybe a couple of invites to speak at a Con or two.
Never thought along the terms of Rowlings or even Isaac Asimov, well maybe Asimov.
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Ok, Yoda Phil, I get it - "Do or Do Not. There is no try."
I was thinking he was living up to what the first part of his name sounded like.
Philosopher
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I was thinking he was living up to what the first part of his name sounded like.Philosopher
I've started going by Philo on other sites as well as using it as my pen name. Hopefully, you'll see it in publications some day soon.
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Who said anything about dying? The horror of disease or being mauled is the transformation into something not the right shape for human.
yea but unless the disease is something that turns one into a zombie or some such then the lion is the far more entertaining of the two. and like ldw2 said it is much quicker.