Day Job Writer Gets Punchy

Oh, fer Chrissakes!

WARNING: You can live any kind of life you want, and I will not judge you. We all make choices and they all have consequences. What I am describing are my thoughts on the matter of being a “real writer” as opposed to a “wooden writer.”

Under here, just in case, you know, rants are not your thing.

I work. For a living. For a substantial living. English teachers have no right to make as much money as I do. Let’s establish the fact that I work. Comprenez-vous? Good. AND I write. AND I have been paid for my writing. Pennies, really, but yes, I’ve been paid.

I would like to comment on WHY I work. Here’s the thing. I believe strongly that I should contribute to society in some way that means something to me. Teaching is that thing. I love writing, but for me, that’s not enough. For you, if it is, awesome. I need to do something to help poor people get away from poverty. And education is the only way I can see to do that.

Recently, Lisa Morton published a list of criteria about what it takes to be a real writer. Ms. Morton is certainly entitled to her opinion, but this random, self-absorbed list (my way or the highway, baybee!) is attracting attention all over the Internet because it gives the wrong impression about what writing should be for everyone. It also does not account for a wide variety of writers, among them myself, who took a different path. By the way, this Lisa Morton should not be confused with my friend and Viable Paradise classmate Lisa Nohealini Morton, who suggested that this might prompt her to explore the world of pseudonyms.

I am NOT going to argue Ms. Morton’s rights to her opinions, but I am going to vehemently disagree with them. The premises?

1. Poverty is NOT sexy. And, in spite of anyone’s best efforts to get loaded on absinthe and clove cigarettes, Bohemia is NOT sexy. As an author, you may choose to quit your day job and focus on your craft. You may choose to make less money because your art is important to you. You may choose to forgo health insurance and retirement benefits. All your choice.

Me? Been there. Done that. You see, I grew up in the realm of rural poverty, and let me tell you, it’s not cool. I had a miserable childhood for a lot of reasons, but poverty contributed mightily to a plethora of problems. You think differently about giving up your day job if your parents drove a car where you had to be careful because if you didn’t put your feet in the right place, they might go through the rusted hole in the backseat floor and drag your foot off. It’s not cool to have to pull your bed out every time it rained to avoid the leaks in your room and empty the bowl that caught the drips all night. Yeah, good times. I should also add that I lived in the kind of house where dogs crapped on the floor and adults did not pick it up. So, you know, I’m cleaning my damned house whether I have to write or not.

Nor is being a poor adult sexy. Ask me about the time I closed my checking account in college because I could not afford the bank fees that they were taking out which ate away at the whole $100 I had left for the semester. Talk to me about the week I ate sweet corn for every meal only because my grandmother had given me a bag before I went back to my boarding house room.

I’m not telling you this to complain. I’m telling you that trusting publishing to provide you with a viable income initially can help YOU to emulate this lifestyle. Ms. Morton advocates it. If suffering is your thing, knock yourself out. I know a lot of authors, established even, who run short of money. There are constant requests from writers for help for medical reasons, bills, and even travel.

Having a job? Nice. You *can* get sick and maybe not go bankrupt. You usually can pay your bills. It makes it more likely you can pay your bills, anyway. I’m all for this, and this is why I’m a day job writer. I would advise writers to get a good degree and get a job and work it, especially if they don’t have others to rely on or want to rely on themselves.

2. Myopia ALSO is NOT sexy. Look, my friends would consider me a horrific boor if all I did was talk writing at them. Because all my friends are not all and only writers. Because how I am going to write about the world if I don’t get out in it? Do I want all my main characters to be disaffected writers who talk about work? No, I don’t. I want to know a variety of people from many walks of life because I think that makes my work richer, and it gives me something to write about, and it helps me to see the world in all sorts of ways I can’t IF I’M JUST TALKING TO WRITERS ABOUT WRITING.

I do not plan my vacations around writing. Sometimes I go to writing workshops. Sometimes I do research on a trip. But mostly I want a rest, and I want to spend travel time with the friends who are on the journey with me. I like vacations to rest. You see, I have this full time job that keeps me busy, and I write on top of that, so sometimes, I can use a rest.

I also get out with friends, and I also watch some television. I do admit, I am almost always analyzing movies for plot and story telling now, and in a very small way, that helps my writing. I am not a hermit. I believe that the best writers are the ones who live fully and write about it. If I remember correctly from a workshop I participated in, so does Donald Maass.

3. Criticism is NOT sexy. It is useful. So, I would rather receive help to make my writing better, but I also need to know what is working so I don’t get rid of it by accident. The critique of “this is almost there, but you should fix this” implies surgery of the wrong sort. You can only see the tumor, but you might cut some healthy tissue because you can’t see where it is. Praise is also good for the soul. We remember criticism more than we remember praise. My personal philosophy is that repeated praise mixed with criticism is necessary for the self-esteem of the artist. An earnest artist will work on the critique. Most artists will forget the praise almost instantly. So, you see why the praise is necessary?

I know, there are egoists. Lack of publishing and progress is its own reward. I assume that they are the minority. If not, I got nothing.

4. Finally, (and if you’ve read this far, go, you), angst is NOT sexy. Ms. Morton suggests that you will never likely meet your ambitions. Well, I’d like to say that depends on what you’re writing for. If your ambition is to land a deal with a Big 6 publisher, or be J.K. Rowling, she’s right. If you’re ambition is to not write crap and to finish books, then, well, I believe you CAN make that happen. Publishing is a possible potential side effect of what I do, BUT that’s not my ambition. This is different for every author.

So, me? I value security, self-sufficiency, helping others, living a fulfilling life, living a happy life, having the satisfaction of meeting my goals, supporting a writing community with praise as well as useful criticism, and with all of this, I believe I can write good books. And I believe I am a real writer. How come you’ve never heard of me, then? Two points: 1. Any writer’s greatest enemy is obscurity. 2. Until this list, most of us had never heard of Ms. Morton either. Perhaps she knows point 1.

The only thing that I agree with Ms. Morton on is that I don’t make enough time to write. I do not choose writing over all things. I do choose writing. Most of the writers that I admire do not choose writing over all things, although they do write a lot and meet goals.

If you follow Ms. Morton’s list, you will get more writing done than I might. If you don’t become depressed, or concerned and worried about your finances, or envious that you aren’t reaching goals that others are reaching, or the plethora of concerns and emotional issues that slap artistic folks upside the head when they are not looking.

This just in: there is some research out there that those of us who have less time actually are more productive in our pursuits than those with less structured schedules, because we don’t think we will get to it later. I dunno. In my case, that often, but not always, works. I do know I write more during the school year than the summer. In part, it’s because my life is more structured during the semester than the summer when I’m vacationing. However, in part it’s because my life is more full in the summer during my summer work periods than when the semester is in session. No real anecdotal evidence for support for or against.

I don’t mind that in some people’s eyes I’m a hobbyist. Whatever you think of me does not affect the reality of what I’m doing. Neener, neener. Sticks and stones.

And yes, if you want, you can envy me my nice house and my health insurance. I envy you your time and the ability to get books done faster than me. And that you made your big splash at 28, while I used that time to get promoted at work. We’ve all made gambles on the choices that we hope work for us.

Now, go write. You shouldn’t be looking at stuff like this. You should be writing. That is what makes you a professional above all things. That you are moving in the right direction.