True—it usually wasn't an amazing living. But it was a not-totally-implausible direction to go, if perhaps not the best move. Isn't even that, now.

IDK what the equivalent poorly-paid-but-is-a-career-in-fiction-writing move is now. Probably video game writing, though you won't be getting to come up with your own stories at the bottom rungs.

Supposedly Bob Silverberg at his peak, could do 10,000 words a day. He shared an office with another writer who was driven mad by the nonstop typing.