What It's Really Like to Write Full-Time (Dispelling Myths About Working from Home)
So, with this being my writing blog and all, you're probably aware that I'm an author. And you probably just assumed -- quite correctly -- that I work from a swanky office in some vastly fashionable metropolitan neighborhood, where I have my own assistant/bagel-fetcher who makes sure I don't have a care in the world to bother me or impede my creative process as I pour forth the literary brilliance onto my computer. (Okay, I know the author stereotype is someone sitting around in their pajamas all day, but allow me a moment of fantasy here...)
Oh, wait, no...I work from home, like most authors (not in my pajamas!). (Last year I quit doing my other job so I could write full-time.) With the opposite of an assistant -- a toddler who sort of destroys most of what he can get his hands on (but looks very cute while doing so). Every once in a while I'll see a blog post an author wrote about what it's like to write full-time and work from home, and I'll always read it, sympathize and giggle. A conversation I recently had with someone prompted me to make my own blog post about what it's like to be a full-time writer.
So today, I'm going to dispel a few myths about what it's really like, with the help of a few good memes...
Myth #1: Working from home = goofing off all day. Books magically write themselves while you chuckle at memes and watch your way through entire seasons of old sitcoms on Netflix.
Truth: Actually, I probably don't need to explain that books don't, in fact, write themselves while the 'writer' watches TV. But it's surprising how many people actually seem to think this, and are even willing to say it to my face.
Myth #2: Since you don't have a boss to boss you around and make you stick to a mean old schedule, you're always free, just waiting around to do anything anyone wants you to do. (Translation: Your time has no value.)
Truth: If what you want me to do is to let you take me out so you can buy me coffee and chocolate and a flying pony while you tell me how much you admire my work ethic (you know, actually working significantly more than 40 hours per week without a boss to make me do it) and recognize that virtually no one in the freakin' world acknowledges or appreciates this, then hell yes, I'm free anytime day or night! But if it's pretty much anything else, you know, my work won't get done if I don't stay home and actually do it.
Myth #3: You have the desire / time to abandon your beliefs and convert to a new religion instead of finishing up that chapter you're working on.
Truth: As much as I sort of admire the crazy fortitude you display by going door-to-door converting in my neighborhood, I'm not actually interested. And if you don't accept my polite refusal, I shall read you the steaming hot gay sex scene I just wrote.
Myth #4: "If you work at something you love, you'll never work a day in your life."
Truth: Actually, you'll work your ass off because you love that 'something'. You'll love it, and there's probably nothing else in the world you'd rather do, but make no mistake -- it's very hard work.
Myth #5: Since you're working from home, it's not a 'real job'.
Truth: My response to this statement is not appropriate to verbalize on my blog.
Myth #6: Being a full-time writer is not the most awesome job in the world.
Truth: It is the most awesome job in the world, at least so far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't trade it for anything and that makes putting up with all the crazy crap some people say to me worth it. :)
Oh, wait, no...I work from home, like most authors (not in my pajamas!). (Last year I quit doing my other job so I could write full-time.) With the opposite of an assistant -- a toddler who sort of destroys most of what he can get his hands on (but looks very cute while doing so). Every once in a while I'll see a blog post an author wrote about what it's like to write full-time and work from home, and I'll always read it, sympathize and giggle. A conversation I recently had with someone prompted me to make my own blog post about what it's like to be a full-time writer.
So today, I'm going to dispel a few myths about what it's really like, with the help of a few good memes...
Myth #1: Working from home = goofing off all day. Books magically write themselves while you chuckle at memes and watch your way through entire seasons of old sitcoms on Netflix.
Truth: Actually, I probably don't need to explain that books don't, in fact, write themselves while the 'writer' watches TV. But it's surprising how many people actually seem to think this, and are even willing to say it to my face.
Myth #2: Since you don't have a boss to boss you around and make you stick to a mean old schedule, you're always free, just waiting around to do anything anyone wants you to do. (Translation: Your time has no value.)
Truth: If what you want me to do is to let you take me out so you can buy me coffee and chocolate and a flying pony while you tell me how much you admire my work ethic (you know, actually working significantly more than 40 hours per week without a boss to make me do it) and recognize that virtually no one in the freakin' world acknowledges or appreciates this, then hell yes, I'm free anytime day or night! But if it's pretty much anything else, you know, my work won't get done if I don't stay home and actually do it.
Myth #3: You have the desire / time to abandon your beliefs and convert to a new religion instead of finishing up that chapter you're working on.
Truth: As much as I sort of admire the crazy fortitude you display by going door-to-door converting in my neighborhood, I'm not actually interested. And if you don't accept my polite refusal, I shall read you the steaming hot gay sex scene I just wrote.
Myth #4: "If you work at something you love, you'll never work a day in your life."
Truth: Actually, you'll work your ass off because you love that 'something'. You'll love it, and there's probably nothing else in the world you'd rather do, but make no mistake -- it's very hard work.
Myth #5: Since you're working from home, it's not a 'real job'.
Truth: My response to this statement is not appropriate to verbalize on my blog.
Myth #6: Being a full-time writer is not the most awesome job in the world.
Truth: It is the most awesome job in the world, at least so far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't trade it for anything and that makes putting up with all the crazy crap some people say to me worth it. :)
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