Charles Stross discusses whether writing is a lifestyle or a job. Stross is pretty cranky about the whole thing. I agree with the writer who asks why he’s still doing it. If it comes to that, why am I still doing it? Because I’m not particularly cranky about writing, although I am sometimes dissatisfied.
I have adult students who carve out time to come to class. They spend their weekends on homework and spend money on baby sitters. Even though, clearly, it costs them to come to class in terms of their work, cash and personal life, they see the opportunity to improve themselves and get an education as something worth doing.
My writing time is valuable to me because I have to find time to do it. Whether my writing time cooperates with my hunger to crank out words or not, the point is I’m making the effort. I want to do it. Why should I hate it? I chose to write, and I value the time I spend at it.
Stross battles the misconceptions about writing lifestyle fairly and effectively, and there are myths to be dissolved. Every once in a while the question stirs up in me: what’s the difference between being an author and a writer? Some would say the difference is whether or not publication and payment are a factor. I think a little differently.
Anyone can be a writer by simply writing some of the time. How can you tell the aspiring author from someone who’s just having a good time? I think most of these things are true for the writer who strives for publication:
1. Do you read and study books in your genre to see what makes them work?
2. Do you write?
3. Do you write regularly? (set aside a certain amount of time per day/week to write?)
4. Do you revise what you write?
5. Do you send your work to friends and/or critique partners for feedback?
6. Can you take suggestions and integrate them into your work?
7. Do you send your work out to paying venues?
8. Have you collected rejection slips?
Note how this sounds a bit like effort. Cool. Art takes effort.
Note that I didn’t say anything about agents, publication, or editors. I believe that’s author territory. Many of us have the idea that if a book is done, we’re ready for the agent step or the publishing step. We all learn that lesson the hard way. Of course, we all need those rejection slips!
The take home message is this: unless the writer is actively writing, sharing writing, revising writing, and getting writing rejected, chances are the writer is not moving toward publication, if that is the writer’s goal. That’s work. It’s not an easy lifestyle. I agree with Stross.
I consider myself a writer, not because of my modest publications, but because I’m working toward moving in the author direction. This isn’t always fun or easy. There will be another layer of obligation and work added on when I become an author. The catch is I want to write. I don’t get to write all the time. Writing makes me happy. I chose not to be bitter.
And I could be bitter, because I could fret about how I don’t have time to write, or how it’s taking me longer to write my current novel because of a variety of setbacks, or how unfair the world is because I can’t be a full-time writer. I chose to focus on what works and what I like, rather than what doesn’t, and how crummy the profession is.
I’d like to point out that there are different kinds of satisfaction than fiscal, and being a writer doesn’t have to be solitary at all stages. That’s why I come back to this journal in addition to working on my manuscript. That’s why I ask for feedback on my work.
It ain’t easy to write, but it isn’t always awful, and Stross makes it sound like that. Writing is like any other endeavor: it takes time and effort to get where you want. Maybe Mr. Stross needs another job that makes him happy or gives him a chance to get out, or even to let off some steam.
I understand his frustration about what people don’t know about the writing lifestyle, and I get that his entry is probably addressed mostly to people who don’t get what the writing lifestyle is really about. Yet, if it all truly stank, why would so many of us try to do it part time or full time?
There is always the crack theory–that writing is an addiction you can’t shake, but there must be more to it than that when you get to the aspiring author stage. Because we can get out at any time. We can walk away.
Now I’m going to enjoy some time away from my day job to write. Because it wasn’t easy to get here today, and I am here, ready to write.
Catherine
