Is Persistence Always Worthwhile?

I've been working on a book for the past six years. I started writing it when I was living out near Chicago, during my years working at VeggieTales. I wrote most of it while sitting in a coffeeshop in Wheaton. I don't drink coffee myself, but the shop was mostly empty, there was a nook out of sight of the employees, the chair was comfortable, and I could buy some hot chocolate every once in a while to keep my sugar levels up.

Over these past six years, the book has progressed in fits and starts into a fairly weighty tome of about 1300 pages. It still isn't done yet, and I guess it needs another 200 pages to finish (that is, if the characters behave the way I hope they behave).

And after it's finished? Statistically, I have a slim to nil chance of getting published. Even if I do get published, the odds are that I will make next to no money on the blasted thing. From a sheer hours to dollars perspective, writing that thing for the last six years will probably prove a wretched investment.

Still...some things you just have to do, regardless of the return.

The Planned Frustrations of Bureaucracy

I recently spoke with a friend who was in process of getting a documentary greenlit at a major network. One muckety at the network had approved the documentary. However, several days later, another muckety jumped in unannounced and requested drastic changes to the show. Each muckety was equal to the other in power, so which one had the final say? My friend related to me that, in the process, he discovered that the network has a system of dual-positions where two mucketies work exactly the same position with the same reponsibilities and the same powers. The intent is that the dual-position system would then act as a safeguard against potential problems.

Intent is often different from outcome, and the outcome here is a bureaucracy that produces delays, frustration and a culture of corporate insanity.

Bureaucracy is the same, regardless of industry, and here in California in the halls of planning, bureaucracy and it's attendant insanities are flourishing. A relative of mine has been trying to get a permit to remodel a house for the last year. The house suffered a fire that burned out a great deal of the interior, requiring walls and roof (among other things) to be rebuilt. You would think that a county would be delighted to have an eyesore (such as a fire-damaged house) to be remodeled, but their behavior speaks otherwise. One of the intriguing insanities uncovered by the process is that, due to my relative wanting to put a floor in the attic (and thus increasing the useable square footage of the house), the county wants him to move the house farther back from the road. However, the house was built in the 1890s, long before the road was built.

It's enough to make anyone scream. Anyway, one year in the permit process and still waiting...