Because of the nature of my disability, I couldn't go after restaurant/bar service jobs. (I would have made an excellent bartender!) I would have preferred that to the “real” job that I had in academia because you are never truly off the clock with administrative jobs, at least not anymore. So you have less psychic energy for writing once you get home.
Great interview. More writers should definitely work as servers as it lets you leave work at work — and focus on your craft, in my case writing fiction. I dropped out of a day job as a copywriter to work in a cafe for a year or two, which turned into nearly seven years. I would do it all over again. It simplified everything. It was the only way to learn how to do what I love.
Because of the nature of my disability, I couldn't go after restaurant/bar service jobs. (I would have made an excellent bartender!) I would have preferred that to the “real” job that I had in academia because you are never truly off the clock with administrative jobs, at least not anymore. So you have less psychic energy for writing once you get home.
Retirement changes that! Yay!
Great interview. More writers should definitely work as servers as it lets you leave work at work — and focus on your craft, in my case writing fiction. I dropped out of a day job as a copywriter to work in a cafe for a year or two, which turned into nearly seven years. I would do it all over again. It simplified everything. It was the only way to learn how to do what I love.
Fellow copywriter here and yup-- you take that work home with you! It haunts!
It's true! It still does.
Great piece that touches on the limitations of class in our modern creator economy.
Unironically - I think the government should have a welfare program for artists (that isn't as intermediated as a typical grant system would be).
My husband is French and they have a functional such system there. He used to receive 1,200 euros a month for being a filmmaker, and that was in 2003!
Wow, that would be amazing!
nice!
I love this realistic look at how to make it!
I read Maum's book "The Year of the Horses" and liked it a great deal.