Posts Tagged‘Freelance Writing’
Thursday’s Work-in-Progress
I’ll admit it: I’m tired. Today we will be meeting a big deadline at the “day job,” and honestly, that’s my main focus right now.
Which brings up a subject that I saw treated on the Fiction Writers Review blog earlier this week. What the question came down to was this: “Do you consider your day-job writing to be Real Writing? How does it affect your drive to tell your own stories in your fiction?”
Well, now that I’ve had a little more time to think about this, I have a few more (and hopefully clearer) thoughts.
First, for me, these are two discrete questions. At this point, I can divide my “day-job” writing and my “Real Writing” into two categories. But the “Real Writing” would include a lot of writing that isn’t fiction. I’ve written only two new short stories this year. But I have written poems, essays, book reviews, and magazine articles, too. None of that is for my “day job.” All of it is “real” writing.
And sure, the memos, e-mails, and minutes that I work on at the day job may not reflect as much “creativity” as the rest. But I’m a writer who researches whether I’m writing fiction, a freelance article, or a memo. I’m a proofreader all the time. And frankly, I’m often far more deadline-driven at the day job than I am anywhere else. And there’s one big plus to my day job writing: I’m told, repeatedly and frequently, that the work that I’m doing is good. I’m told that it matters. I’m told that my skills are appreciated. Yes, I get some of that feedback as a fiction writer, too. But not nearly so much, and not nearly so often.
The second question–about how my day job may affect my drive “to tell [my] own stories in [m]y fiction”–is more complicated, and it forces me to consider something I don’t especially enjoy thinking about very much. And that’s the fact that since I returned to a full-time, 9-5 office job, my fiction production has declined precipitously. I’m not sure I’ll ever be back where I was in my MFA program, when I was writing literally a dozen stories a year. I’m not sure why that is. I don’t think that it is due entirely to the changes in my schedule and the intense daily demands on my brainpower. But it’s true that most of the time I feel as though I’m thinking in poem or essay form. I’m thinking about something intense, something that can be encapsulated in a few lines, or a few pages. I’m thinking in ideas or emotions, not in images or characters. That’s been excellent for a lot of my outside-the-day-job writing. But it isn’t great for fiction.
So much for clarity, I fear! What do you all think? Please chime in here or on the FWR blog, as you prefer.
The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers
Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities
The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers
- Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the U.S.A., so it’s a most appropriate time to consider Susan Johnston’s suggestions re: ways freelancers can show gratitude.
- Similarly, I really like this series of “thank-yous” from The Review Review‘s editor, Becky Tuch.
- Another provocative writing prompt from Midge Raymond.
- Jane Friedman’s take on the best literary blogs and websites.
- I plan to spend some time over the next few days buying books to give the little ones for the holidays. I’m likely to consult the Kirkus recommendations of recent children’s books as well as ideas from The New York Times Book Review. I’m also quite taken by the premise of Estie the Mensch, by Jane Kohuth. Any other suggestions?