So a few days ago a former teacher of mine sent out a call for writing advice to share with her new students. Specifically, advice about how to balance a writing life with the very likely day-job. Fellow Clarion alum and KT Literary client Catherine Cheek replied with a very nice response which she also blogged about here, and subsequently linked here by our agent extraordinaire.
In the interest of fairness, and petty one-upsmanship, I will now share my own small response that was originally a part of that discussion. My thoughts are brief and nowhere near as well thought out, but they do reflect a serious concern of mine – The Danger of the Hobby Writer!
Enjoy. (or if Kater’s reading this – come and flame me!)
I agree with a lot of what’s been said but . . . I absolutely abhor, dread and despise the term “hobby writer” (but I absolutely love, admire and celebrate Kater!).
I certainly agree that writers must come up with a financial safety net, whether that is a day-job with benefits or employed spouse. But I’ve known several aspiring authorly friends over the years whose writing careers ended not with a bang or whimper, but with the words “I’m more of a hobby writer now.”
It takes such devotion, such a ridiculous faith-in-one’s own worth to be a writer that I think it needs to always be at the front of your ambition. A writer needs to cover the basic hierarchy of needs, and that usually comes in the form of a day job, but that is only to support the writing.
I’ve sold two books, but I’m the sole support of my family of three, therefore I teach English and ESL at the community college, which is a rewarding job with time off to write. I’m planning to have a day job for a long, long time, even if I sell more books, because that’s the reality of this business for most of us.
But on my taxes I put “Writer”.
When asked what I do for a living, I answer “Writer”.
My “hobby” is collecting comic books (yes I’m that kind of nerd).
For those New Yorkers amongst us, I’ll be chatting with Jonathan Stroud as part of the Thalia Kids’ Book Club series at Symphony Space on January 25th. We’ll be talking about the wonderful Bartimaeus Trilogy of course, but we’ll also get into Jonathan’s brand new book – Heroes of the Valley. It’s not out until January 27th, but I got the chance to read it over Christmas and it’s good. It’s real good.
