Making a Living

As glamorous as writing is for some, the reality is that we are only as good as our last sentence is and we are always striving to improve that last sentence. The majority of writers do not have the luxury of agonizing over that sentence and turning it inside out two or three times - we need to make a living. Whether that living is writing, selling, teaching, healing or accounting, we all have to pay the bills. I am no different.

So, I have a day job, which is really an all day job, but it is cool because it is a cool job, one that lets me be a dad, lets me be a writer, and lets me be me. I realize that this is a blessing, that most do not have the gig that I have. This gig comes with sacrifices, but none are important enough to stress over, so I don’t.

Name the writers you admire, and then list the jobs they held before becoming successful at writing. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Roth, Grisham and many others come to mind. They all had gigs before fame. If you want to write, realize it is a lonely pursuit.

I am reading a new book that I find fascinating. It is a book on craft and mythological structure. It is motivating me to go back and finish my YA novel that is lonely, disowned and weeping on my hard drive, begging me to pay attention. “Spike, please love me, please complete me, I am worthy.” And it is. I wrote it as part of my MA Thesis and it’s okay. It needs polishing and finishing, but I am in love with it, especially because I have interest from publishers and it is ripe for a prequel and a sequel, cha ching.

See, now I have bad karma because I mentioned money. I have been sentenced to two more years of obscurity. Whatever. I can deal.

So, that’s my deal Neal.