Writing as a Job
My daughter's guidance counselor asked me to give a career talk. Now I normally enjoy talking about writing but as a job? Unlike other writers I have heard speak I do not have a strict routine. My writing routine is imposed by what I'm writing. I spend most of the day mulling over my stories while doing housework. In the early stages, I don't write anything at all. Once I've fleshed out my characters and have a good idea how the story should begin and end, I start writing. Well, sometimes I start without the end in mind. But when I do that I risk taking forever to complete the story--as what happened with my Adarna book Hating Kapatid. It took me three years to think of an ending!
For Love Among the Geeks, I was able to produce a chapter every single day. This was when I had only two children. My daughter was in the first grade afternoon class and my son not yet in school. This sounds like it would make it harder to work but not really. I could let my kids sleep until eight, so I could write from 4-8 am. I had no school lunch to prepare--I just threw packaged snacks in the lunchbox. The rest of the day I wrote on and off between doing other things and I would plan the next chapter in my mind as I fell asleep at night.
Now I wake up at four and I have to feed a baby and fix two school lunches. Yes, I can write after, but being unwillingly roused from sleep is different from being awakened by the excitement of a good idea. When I go to the computer with nothing in mind, then I will dither. That's why I'm on fb now!
I do have one rule I adhere to and that is I must always do something related to my writing when I'm at the computer. It can be research or editing or adding to character profiles. So if I filled in a time sheet I could enter those activities as time spent on my job. Hmm, maybe having an actual time sheet is not a bad idea.
I never miss a deadline for commissioned work, though, even if I don't work according to schedule. I try to set aside a couple of days to work on an article, a few days before the deadline. A deadline not only pushes me to work, but is something respected my family, which will make them pitch in to help more. But the only one who would respond to a general, "I need time to write" is my husband.
The thing is, I feel a greater need now to show my daughter that I do work and earn money. Recently, as my husband and I were discussing who could go to her PTC, I said I would have to as Daddy could not get out of work. "But you don't work, do you Mom?" she said. I pointed out that looking after the family was work and going to talk to her teacher was one of my mom jobs.
When it came to the actual PTC day, I learned she was acting lazy in school. I can't help thinking that her perception that I don't work and I just do whatever I want when I want to may be a contributing factor.
So maybe logging in time is a good idea. So my daughter--and others--can see how much time I have to spend to create a new work. What do you think?
For Love Among the Geeks, I was able to produce a chapter every single day. This was when I had only two children. My daughter was in the first grade afternoon class and my son not yet in school. This sounds like it would make it harder to work but not really. I could let my kids sleep until eight, so I could write from 4-8 am. I had no school lunch to prepare--I just threw packaged snacks in the lunchbox. The rest of the day I wrote on and off between doing other things and I would plan the next chapter in my mind as I fell asleep at night.
Now I wake up at four and I have to feed a baby and fix two school lunches. Yes, I can write after, but being unwillingly roused from sleep is different from being awakened by the excitement of a good idea. When I go to the computer with nothing in mind, then I will dither. That's why I'm on fb now!
I do have one rule I adhere to and that is I must always do something related to my writing when I'm at the computer. It can be research or editing or adding to character profiles. So if I filled in a time sheet I could enter those activities as time spent on my job. Hmm, maybe having an actual time sheet is not a bad idea.
I never miss a deadline for commissioned work, though, even if I don't work according to schedule. I try to set aside a couple of days to work on an article, a few days before the deadline. A deadline not only pushes me to work, but is something respected my family, which will make them pitch in to help more. But the only one who would respond to a general, "I need time to write" is my husband.
The thing is, I feel a greater need now to show my daughter that I do work and earn money. Recently, as my husband and I were discussing who could go to her PTC, I said I would have to as Daddy could not get out of work. "But you don't work, do you Mom?" she said. I pointed out that looking after the family was work and going to talk to her teacher was one of my mom jobs.
When it came to the actual PTC day, I learned she was acting lazy in school. I can't help thinking that her perception that I don't work and I just do whatever I want when I want to may be a contributing factor.
So maybe logging in time is a good idea. So my daughter--and others--can see how much time I have to spend to create a new work. What do you think?
date
newest »
newest »
I find this interesting because I've been wanting to make measurements of my writing stamina in relation to creative process.
Then again, of course, we could just make manual logs.