I especially like the quote: "Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money" – Moliere*
In modernism class we are covering Virginia Woolf and T S Eliot who both had very different ideas about writing. To some extent Woolf believed that anyone who wishes to write should. That writing is not something limited to a certain class of people, or sex even. But she did believe to write well a writer would need a room of their own and a little money a year. This is so they could write in a quiet place, and not be disturbed. The money was so that they could afford that quiet place. She also said that having a little more money would be better, because it would mean that you don't have to write for money, so you could be a perfect writer - one that only writes truth (not non-fiction, but universal truth that writers often try to reach). Lastly she did compare a prostitute to a person who writes for money, which Eliot did as well.
T S Eliot, however, thought that writing literature should be done by only an elite few. Writers should be very educated (and probably male though he doesn't state as far as I am aware). This is because the writing he wanted produced would all be literature, and would be absorbed into the greater "Tradition" of the literary canon.
I can't say that I am certain on either of these points, and if I am wrong about either Woolf of Eliot I apologies. This is just my understanding from readings in class. And I will point out that Woolf never saw one side of an argument, so there is probably and essay by her about how writing for money is fantastic, and liberating.
But read what Trudi Canavan writes in her blog- it shows that the same argument is just as important today as it was with early novel writers. Trudi Canavan is a most excellent fantasy writer - one of my favourite books is by her:
* possibly not Moliere - see link here.
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