I started a podcast! I will be publishing monthly episodes where I speak to writers in the industry who have also waited tables, tended bars, been baristas, worked in kitchens, or held down the host station. We will discuss the chaos of restaurant life and how working in these spaces has funded or influenced their work as writers.
This episode is a little teaser that dives further into what’s to come. I hope you enjoy it!
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Episode Transcript
Welcome to In the Weeds, the podcast where we explore the intersection of writing and working in the service industry.
I'm your host, Kailey Brennan DelloRusso.
For this first episode, I thought I would talk a little bit about me, why I wanted to start this podcast, and what to expect in future episodes.
I've spent over a decade balancing my day job as a waitress with my passion for writing. This journey has not only inspired my upcoming novel but also sparked a curiosity for how other writers manage this delicate and often very tricky balance between making time for our art and what we do for work. Or, more specifically, how we make ends meet through jobs often viewed as menial or low status.
In each episode of In the Weeds, we'll dive into candid conversations with authors and artists who've poured drinks, served meals, and cleared tables, all while funding their writing or art. It's a blend of industry talk and deep dives into the creative process, shedding light on the less glamorous but equally important aspects of a writer's life.
So, whether you're an aspiring writer working your way through late-night shifts, like me, someone interested in the behind-the-scenes of server life, or you just want to know how the hell artists make a living while supporting their art, "In the Weeds" is your invitation to a candid conversation about the work that fuels our writing.
*music*
I’m particularly passionate about this because, as I mentioned, I’ve been working as a waitress for about ten years now. It’s how I put myself through college, and it's how I’m sustaining my writing life now. I started working as a hostess in a tea room, working my way reluctantly to a waitress until I realized the money was much better. And honestly, being a hostess is the front of the house equivalent to being a dishwasher in the kitchen. It’s the worst! From there, I got a job as a server in a country club dining room, which is where I discovered something magical—automatically added gratuity. I’ve worked in two different country clubs in my area since and am still currently employed there as I work on my novel and manage Write or Die magazine—which is part of Chill Subs; if you don’t know it, you need to check it out—and building my writing career.
I’ve had what other people might refer to as “real jobs” in an office, but I’ve always kept a weekend shift for the extra money because I think I've always known deep down that office life is not for me.
Also, I really hate the term “real job.” I’m sure that will be coming up often on this show because I don’t think we should categorize how we make a living as real or not real. I don’t know about you, but when I think of my life in terms of a career, the word writer has always been at the forefront. Everything else has just been a means to fund my writing life. I used to feel bad about that. Thinking I needed to have this grand-sounding title with a high-paying salary that somehow would give me meaning or at least make other people think of me a certain way. Of course, I still want the high-paying salary, but through my years of waiting tables, I’ve come to realize how beneficial this grunt work has been for my creative life. It gives me time for one thing. I can write in the mornings and work in the evenings. But these menial jobs also offer space to allow my creativity to blossom. When I’m waiting tables, Im in the flow. If you’ve done it before, you know there is a system. One step after the other intertwines with the bartender, the kitchen, the bussers. It's all about pacing, and it's satisfying when everything goes smoothly. But in the context of my job, I’m not using up all my creative energy so that when it is time to come to the page, I have the capacity.
For me, this work has an added layer because I’m writing about it. Restaurants are interesting in and of themselves, but my novel in progress is a little more specific as it takes place in a country club restaurant. When I first graduated college, I was working in this space for something like 70 hours a week over one summer; I knew I had to write about it. Country clubs are just too chock-full of characters and drinkers and wealth, and honestly, they are very culty. It's perfect for fiction, in my opinion, and I hope my novel does it all justice.
I’m not saying I want to waitress forever—definitely not. But while I’m doing it, I might as well find ways it can work with my writing goals, instead of against them. And I’m excited to learn how others have handled this balance. On this show, we will be talking about money, work and writing and all the chaos a restaurant holds with my upcoming guests.
Stay tuned for my very first interview with Brittany Ackerman.
(audio clip from Brittany)
But I was never someone that could write on the same days that I worked, just because it takes so much out of you. Like, you know, you're on your feet, you're, like, sweating, there's barbecue sauce all over you.
I never, like, wrote on receipt paper, like, notes. I was just at the restaurant when I was at the restaurant. But I feel like the pace and just the hours and everything, like, it just made me take the writing as part of a job too, even though I wasn't getting paid for it. I was like, oh, this is also part of my working life.
She is the author of the novel The Brittanys and the essay collection The Perpetual Motion Machine. She's also the assistant interview editor at my magazine, Write or Die, and is always a joy to talk about all things writing with.
So stay tuned for that. See you then!
In the Weeds: The Podcast