Forum / Occupation: Writer/Editor

• 
  Dolemite

  Apr 24, 07:02pm

  I'm assuming this means AT LEAST 50% of your income is derived from said activities.

  How do ya'll do it?!

• 
  Ann Bogle

  Apr 25, 01:48am

  I work sort of "under the table." I don't get paid under the table, but I give my time under the table.

• 
  James Lloyd Davis

  Apr 25, 02:34pm

  Occupation is such a vague word. It is the nature of writing, especially in the writing of novels, that you must perform the work long before you can expect reward, much less to be paid for it. Novels of substance and quality often take years to write and once the work is completed, it's acceptance is then up to the fates, the demi-gods who stand at the gates of publishing institutions, beating back the hopefuls with snarls and sticks.

  Or is that too dramatic?

  Writer/editors are probably sustained in an academic environment. Much of what passes for art in America is sustained by academic institutions.

  I wonder if that's a healthy environment, but that's just me.

  I believe that, like rabbis of old, serious writers should learn a useful trade, like welding, farming, pizza tossing or auto mechanics... a paying job back upon which to fall for sustenance in a world most unfriendly to writers.

  I don't know anything about editors, so I dast not make presumptions.

  Besides, this was a rhetorical question, no?

• 
  James Lloyd Davis

  Apr 25, 02:39pm

  "...its acceptance..." not it's... sheesh.

• 
  Neil Serven

  Apr 25, 06:13pm

  In my case my day job is for a publisher (reference books). So EDITOR goes at the bottom of the 1040.

  Next year I think it will say EDITOR/WRITER.

• 
  Marcus Speh

  Apr 25, 08:04pm

  I don't think the slash or an "and" says anything about economics but rather about dreams and hopes. Mine says "Writer and Professor": the first is an aspiration only, the second is tenure, hard as oily rock. Wait, I lied: I've earned the equivalent of a few cappuccinos from writing last year, through http://flattr.com — that was nice. I think I would feel very disoriented if I actually lived of my writing. I'm not sure I'd find my shoes and socks in the morning...

• 
  MichaelDickes

  Apr 26, 03:26am

  That's why they told me "one day, son, you're gonna have to eat those words." But alas, I'm a shitty edider.

• 
  Joani Reese

  Apr 26, 12:35pm

  Supplementing that 50% with food stamps is probably a good strategy.

• 
  Linda Simoni-Wastila

  Apr 26, 01:34pm

  I think of *occupation* as what occupies my time, my energy.

  I think of *job* as what pays the bills.

  If the two collide, it is a happy thing, but I tend to find it healthier to *job* separate from *occupation*.

  Peace...

• 
  Gessy Alvarez

  Apr 26, 07:10pm

  Linda, I'm with you.

  My job is to crunch numbers in an non-profit academic setting.

  My occupation is to be me...

  My raison d'être to be a rabble-rousing lady of letters...

• 
  MaryAnne Kolton

  Apr 29, 05:37am

  There are so many of us who do both and are paid for neither. We eat our words and pay the rent with our rejections. . . .

• 
  Marcus Speh

  Apr 29, 07:25am

  “The artist of the future will live the ordi­nary life of a human being, earn­ing his liv­ing by some kind of labour. He will strive to give the fruit of that supreme spir­i­tual force which passes through him to the great­est num­ber of peo­ple, because this con­vey­ing of the feel­ings that have been born in him to the great­est num­ber of peo­ple is his joy and his reward. The artist of the future will not even under­stand how it is pos­si­ble for an artist, whose joy con­sists in the widest dis­sem­i­na­tion of his works, to give these works only in exchange for a cer­tain pay­ment.” ― Leo Tol­stoy “What is Art ” (1911), transl. Pevear/Volokhonsky (1995) — from my blog http://bit.ly/9FRenQ —

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