Being a Better Writer: So You’ve Discovered Writing is Work, Now What? · 9:24pm Mar 25th, 2019
Hello readers! Welcome back to another glorious Monday Being a Better Writer post! Yeah, I’m in a good mood this morning. The Halo novel pitch draft is coming along nicely, I’ve got a fairly relaxed topic for the day, and a bunch of new music to listen to while I work!
This work included. Which doesn’t include too much in the way of news before I dive into it. Just one or two things coming up worth discussing.
First, the long-promised wrist post, complete with pictures and a sequence of events, will go up this week. Look for that around Wednesday or Thursday. I have to keep the actual date a little fluid, because tomorrow I find out whether or not I’m going back to work Wednesday, and from what I understand my job has been extremely strapped for workers lately.
It’s amazing. It’s like locking wages for seven years and paying below average market value with really bad hours (9 PM to 4 AM is common, with no compensation like most jobs would have for such a late shift; in fact it’s the lowest-paid job in the place) makes it really hard to keep employees. Especially in a place where the cost of living is currently skyrocketing. It’s like people want money or something in exchange for their labors. Weird, right?
Anyway, long way of saying that they may, if I am cleared for work tomorrow, have me in ASAP because yeah, they don’t have nearly enough employees.
Second bit of news? My books are almost at the halfway point for the end-year goal of 400 reviews and ratings. Seriously, three reviews away. 197 out of 200. So … close!
And that’s it for the news! Like I said, just one or two things. Now, onto today’s post!
So, this post may sound a little familiar to many of you. And that’s because I’ve written a bit on the subject before. Today’s is just from another angle, because surprise surprise, this topic is one I hear requests for constantly.
And in part, it’s because there are a lot of young writers out there who, well, to put it bluntly, with no sugar, think that they are different, that their situation is unique and different from the other new writers when it’s really not. I’m sorry to have to pull the band-aid off, but let me make something clear: It’s not. You may feel that because of the story you’re writing, or your circumstances, or your characters, or your genre, or any number of other reasons, that your story is unique, that if you were working on any other story or if it were some other individual’s writing, the trials you’re facing in these early moments wouldn’t occur.
But you’re wrong. Sure, there might be a small detail here or there that can make your situation a bit different, but at the end of the day?
Writing is work. Even when you love it.
RE: shit wages: if you can, you should form a union.
Ah, I remember those old days. The days of starting something and being unable to finish because I didn’t realize how much work writing is. Heck, I’m in a bit of a slump right now. But I know that as soon as my break’s gone long enough that little whisper in the back of my head will become a scream and I’ll jump back into it, because I always do. And I will love it. I might be out of the block phase right now if I weren’t blowing half my free time on re-reading/formatting/editing these days.
But the entire reason I devote myself to only two or three stories at a time? Yeah, it’s that whole “50 new stories and I can’t finish any of them!” thing that I’ve learned to tactfully avoid.
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Unfortunately, while this has been brought up, the most likely response is that they would do the American thing and fire us all, then eat the cost of temp workers until they could convince some people to be replacements.
Sure, there are laws against that, but at the end of the day in the US, especially with a company like Comcast, that means less "something your can't do" and more "suggestion of a fine you might have to pay if those expensive lawyers and lobbyists don't do their job."
Hence why I wrote last month's Patreon reward the way I did: to put the focus on how dehumanizing corporations like Comcast have become.
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Yeah but you've been doing a ton of editing, right? That counts!
But personally I can't imagine juggling more than two stories at most. I couldn't keep it all straight.
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I am indeed doing a 'ton' of editing, although most of that is re-reading what exists and deciding the majority is good enough. It might count, but it doesn't feel as fulfilling, y'know?
Luckily, juggling multiple plotlines in my head has never been an issue, although I do sometimes have to go back and reread a little to make sure I have all the details in place. Keeping the stories straight is one thing, remembering all the tiny ideas sprouted from past chapters is another. Still, if I work on any one story for too long at a stretch I'll start getting disinterested, so having a small pool of stories to switch through is helpful for keeping my creativity going.