Potentially the least romantic element of a writer’s life, after Microsoft Word subscription fees and hemorrhoid pillows, is the existence of the dreaded “day job.” This specter of selling out can feel like the ultimate betrayal to your muses, the confession that your own work, though full of passion and effort, cannot actually pay the rent and put food on the table.
Of course, this is silly to think. Money has never been given purely meritocratically. In fact, artists are often refused the compensation that would actually keep them afloat let alone allow them to thrive in the state of comfort needed for good writers to become great. I think that a day job is one of the most important tools you can give your writing career. Reject the lie of the starving artist and give your writing the benefit of stability.
The perfect day job, in my opinion, shares three aspects:
- Set working times that never unexpectedly carve into writing time. Keep that time treasured.
- A consistent paycheck, not something wildly variable like commission-based work.
- Tasks that do not use your creative mind. It might be tempting to find work that uses all the same skills as your writing career, especially if they are the skills you feel confident about, but don’t give into this temptation. At the end of the day, when part of your brain and body is exhausted, your writing will always get deprioritized. It’s better to exhaust other types of labor. Once you clock off, your brain will be ready to jump back into writing like a warm bath.
Writers, remember that though art needs to exist despite the challenges of the world, it cannot be the solution to everything. Do not let your writing carry all the responsibility of your survival, and instead it will do the important work of capturing, sharing, and explaining life.
—Paloma Hernando, agent, Ayesha Pande Literary