Writing is work! I swear!
Today I’m going to talk about a little-known secret. Are you ready for it? Here it is:
Writing is work!
You may be chuckling right now, the same way you do when you hear models claim that stretching sexily on rocks on exotic beaches with their freakishly perfect bodies is hard work because they had to get up at 5 am. (Sorry, models.) But I’m being quite serious. Read on and see what I mean.
Contrary to popular belief, writers don’t have all the free time in the world. So, I’m sorry, I can’t help you move/baby-sit your kid/etc. because I have to write. I know I don’t drive to an office every day but just because I’m at home when I write does not mean I’m actually laying around in my pajamas eating bonbons. (Well, most the time. Sometimes I actually do do that.) Believe it or not, books don’t write themselves. And here’s another secret: romance novels are real books. They take time. Hours and hours, months and months. Romance novels are not easier to write than any other genre of book. Don’t believe me? Well, obviously you have not seen the pile of revisions sitting on my desk. My point? While authors have flexible schedules, that doesn’t necessarily mean we have any more free time than someone with a “real” job. And many of us have “real” jobs as well, or we have kids to raise and try to write in our “spare” time. And a lot of people I know balance jobs, kids and writing. (I bow to them, truly.) So when we choose to stay home on the weekends to work on a project instead of going to a barbecue it means we’re working very hard on our second career. Because writing is a job!
Also. It’s not cheap to be a writer. Believe it or not, we have overhead and lots of it. When I bought my new Mac Air I had a lot of comments such as, “Must be nice! Hardy har har.” Well, you know what? It is nice! It’s also the tool to my livelihood. Soon after I sold my first books to New York I decided it was time for a new laptop. (My other laptop died a slow death due to a fatal invasion of toast crumbs.) It was strange to walk into the Apple store and know I was buying something that was going to be the conduit between my head and a book that would be mass marketed in bookstores. I started looking at computers in a whole new light. And that’s not the only expense. I put a lot of money into writing organization membership dues, promoting myself, going to conference, my website, reader conventions, contests and giveaways…the list goes on. Writing is really like starting a business. You start out with nothing, then you put every penny back into your career until you—hopefully—start seeing a profit. So yes. Writing definitely has overhead. Much more than people think.
Here’s another secret. An author probably spends half of her productive computer time actually writing. Notice I said productive computer time—if procrastination was an Olympic event I would have a gold medal. Several of them, actually. Anyway, in this day and age an author needs to have an internet presence. What does that mean? It means being on myspace, romance review websites, facebook, reader chats, forums, blogging, even youtube. In fact it’s hard to know where to draw the line on internet promo because you could easily spend the majority of your time doing these things. I actually know authors who get so caught up in internet promo their writing suffers.
My final point. Conferences and conventions are not vacations. Of course it’s fun to see other authors, many of whom we know well due to the wonders of the internet. In fact, I love going to conference. But it’s still work, not to mention expensive. You never know who you’re going to meet, so you have to be “on” all the time. It’s the one time of year an author gets to talk face-to-face with the top names in the industry. Sure, sometimes we manage to get out of the hotel and sing karaoke with drag queens, but all in all, conferences are work. I always come back feeling exhausted and useless. Not at all the same as when I come home from Mexico.
So thank you for listening to my lesson on why writing is actually a job. Fortunately all my own friends and family totally get this so I’m lucky. Still, once in awhile I meet someone and must enlighten them to the realities of pursuing a career in writing. Now, I suppose I should put an end to this particular type of internet promo and get to work on my revisions. ☺ Meanwhile, discuss amongst yourselves.
August 28th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
[…] I’m blogging on it here. […]
August 28th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I agree-writing is work. Hard work, expensive work. I like your analogy about it being like starting a business. I never thought of it that way before, but you’re absolutely right. It’s your money and time that starts it and every cent you earn will, more than likely, be put back into it at some point.
Also, I have to remember that “the book won’t write itself” line the next time I get a guilt trip about not being social.
Great post, Feisty.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
LOVE IT! That’s so true!
August 28th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Also, and this is even more sad, books don’t edit themselves, either.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Oh yes, writing is work and expensive. I have spent more money in the 6 months since I have gotten serious-I have a web site to put together.Business cards purchased. conventions to save and plan for. office furniture. and my furniture was either given to me or bought used. Nothing new here.
But it is a driving force in me that I put words down on paper. I also have a full time job. that I am responsible for. I am one of those that will (work for food):) So in my spare time I write and this usually I don’t clean my house except when company’s acomin.
Klara
August 28th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
My husband loves my writing business. We can write it all off at a huge loss! LOL
It’s such hard work and most people don’t get it. I feel bad when the day is over and I look around and my house is a mess. My kids are eating cereal because I couldn’t get up the energy to actually make a real dinner. But hey, I just wrote 5000 words!
I want a maid…
August 28th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Karen, I was just thinking the exact same thing. I even have someone come and clean a couple times a month, but it seems to do no good at all! And I hate that after a day of writing, I don’t have the energy to cook a decent meal. I mean, I’m home already, right? I just don’t get it.
August 28th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Amen sister!!
August 28th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Loved your post!
August 28th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
yes it is work…and it is hard. And sometimes I’d rather go to a bbq or watch tv, too.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
If I had only taken all this effort and put it into becoming a doctor.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Karen….Feist….I do try to plan head. Sometimes it works–esp on the Wednesday’s I get off early. Sometimes not so much. I also keep bags of Bertolli around. It’s like real food and they think you cooked cuz it’s really good (really good being relative–we love it) and all you do is heat it up and make a salad.
Also, consider a crock pot. Put food in, write all day, dinner is served
I paid my kids to clean all summer. I’m telling ya’ll I SOOOOOOO got scammed
August 28th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Amie, I was just saying to myself, “Self? You should use that crock pot!) If you have any good vegetarian recipes, send them my way!
I am lucky because most of my friends and family really respect my work. But then I talk to some idiot and I’m like, grrrrrr! So that’s why I chose to write this lesson today. :)
August 28th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Very good post, Feisty. All true, every word. And I love the video!!
August 28th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
OMG Ur still not eating meat?! I’m truly impressed. If I think of something with no meat, I’ll toss it your way. :)
August 28th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
It’s hard to find good veggie crock pot recipes.
August 28th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Charlotte, that cracked me up. Even if I was smart enough to be a Dr. I’d never take that schedule! I’ve had a lot of jobs, and the whole 9-5 thing never worked for me. Or, even worse, being on call. No thanks!! I can’t have someone dictating when I can have wine.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
I was just saying to Hubby the other day, writing the story is 1 part, doing edit/polish, query, submitting, networking, researching, planning, learning the business, knowing a little about contract law, conferences, and every other thing that goes with getting a book out there, is about 19 parts. But then in the words of my family, ‘You don’t work.’ Mmmm…. no, I don’t work, because we all know it’s so easy to write a book and get it published. I’m already overwhelmed by how much work it is and I’ve not done half of it yet. But then I don’t work and I’ve got a maid so what am I complaining about? LACK OF RESPECT!!! I’m tired of the ‘Well it’s not like you’re working. So when are you getting a book published?’ sigh
The ignorance of the none writer.
RC
August 28th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Rhian, that sucks. My husband has actually always been very encouraging and supportive about my writing. I do think it’s hard for him to understand why I really have to spend so much time at my computer when I’m not actually writing, but he deals with it pretty well. And I know nothing about internet connections and that stuff, so he keeps me set up.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Oh, Amie! My friend and I are going to do that Dream Dinner thing, where you go and put a bunch of food together and freeze it. She brought me a bunch of stuff when I broke my leg and it was a lifesaver!! We’re going to stock our fridges. Everything she brought me was awesome!!
August 29th, 2008 at 12:27 am
I wanted to add that it’s not just writing that people don’t get. Husband works at home too and people are alway asking him to do shit. And stay at home moms get it too.
August 30th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Damn right Feisty! Great post :)
August 31st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
So true, Feisty. And very well put! And I’m still leaning toward a Mac!