My uncle was a wizard engineer. He could have sold his company in his late 30s and “lived” without any financial worries (we won’t say “retired” as that has, for some, negative connotations). He wanted to travel. He wanted to sculpt. He dreamt of being an artist, even if only an amateur one. At 44, he was 6 feet under. Tens of millions of net worth couldn’t save him from stress.
Walk around any town today and you’ll see that the majority of old single people are women (any visit to a residential home will tell you that men die earlier than women). Look at the late-middle-age couples wandering around and if one of them is clearly ill – using a walking aid or a chair etc – it will in the majority of cases be the man. Men might think they are supermen, but they’re not. They always think they are the exception, but they’re not. Their time is short, and it grows shorter and their life more heavily taxing with each passing year. Life flies. Work devours. What remains is dust.
I don’t think you should “retire”, but if you’re at a point where you could “live” (and finally write your novel) rather than work under the pressure of building Mac Scrivener, iOS Scrivener, and Scapple; overseeing Windows development; considering Linux development; running L&L; dealing with the tax man and the VAT man and the NI man; dealing with the accountants and the lawyers; dealing with all the laws and regulations and constant changes in terms of tech and business practices, etc, etc, etc, then I would urge you to take that opportunity: for yourself, your partner, and your family. In 10 years, you’ve handled 30 years of regular work and stress. You deserve to suck on the marrow of your many successes. By the time one realises the toll exacted by such a heavy workload, it is all too often far too late. We stand too close to see the big picture. Hit the wall: too hard.
And I don’t think L&L will fail. But from my experience, I see people drifting away from Scrivener because they want the consistency and simplicity (of interface and syncing) that other apps are making them habituated to. We have five Scrivener 3 licences in my close family. I am the only person still using Scrivener today. The only one who if S4 was launched tomorrow would be interested in upgrading (if things were largely as they are now). That’s all fine by me, but from what I see around me, I get the feeling that Scrivener is losing out (not failing, but losing out) as the world moves on to different and more seamless application models.
I really think an iPadOS Scrivener running on macOS would suit most users (and bring some wandering sheep back into the fold). If there had to be a second Mac-only add-on (not separate) app that handled more complicated procedures for the fewer users who need such a tool, so be it. But from what I know of the writers around me, a universal app would suit them far more than the arrangement we have now (which I love, but find myself being atypical in that love).
bemorewithless.com/the-story-of … fisherman/
Written (though clumsily) with love and respect and a from-the-bottom-of-my-heart sense of care.
Slàinte mhòr.