[From the Archive] Writing Reality
Shana Swendson, author of the Enchanted, Inc. series, did a bit in her journal a few weeks back about the “Unreality” of writerly life on television. I will barely touch on this, so go read her insights on it. It’s both amusing and too, too true. And it comes up now because I’m in the middle of “necessity” writing and work.
To those who see writing (or actually any kind of artistic endeavor) as “Glamorous”. Yeah… right. Let me tell ya. It’s hard. The only thing NCIS’s Tim McGee got RIGHT about being a writer is 1) writers get stuck and 2) 9 writers out of 10 have “day” jobs – even those who seem to write full time and aren’t named King, Rowling, Meyer, or Scalzi (and even Scalzi is doing other stuff now, too – granted it’s consulting on Stargate Universe) write things other than their novels to supplement the income.
I mention this because I’m currently facing down the barrel of a major deadline. I recently took a “Day Job” – which is writing pretty, fluffy web content (today I’m writing episode summaries of Battlestar Galactica, what are you doing?). Which means I’m frantically busy and my procrastination button is stuck on “ON”. I’m a “normal” writer – I don’t want to be doing what I’m SUPPOSED to be doing. I want to do what’s fun. And yet… the deadline = money. Therefore, it is good. And it will get done.
Because if I was a television writer, I wouldn’t have to worry too much about deadlines or day jobs. Much. Except as a complication to the episode plot. And even then, it would all be resolved in 45 minutes. My life would also be a lot more “exciting” than it currently is. Not that I want my life to be any more “exciting” than it already is. This is the “busy” time of the year, and time management is seriously the key. And yet… we do what’s necessary to get the job done. If we’re serious about “real” writing and not “television” writing.
On a mailing list I’m on, there was a rant about those who WANT to write but they don’t have time whiners. Since it’s a mailing list of small press writers, there’s no sympathy for those folks. We’re all in the same boat. Here’s my list: Day Job, Weekend Job (for two more weeks), freelance project, husband, pets, family commitments. It’s not a complaint. It IS. I do what’s necessary when it’s necessary. Will the deadline be pushed to its limit – probably. Will these articles be a little weird for a few weeks? Yeah. Sorry. But do they get done? Yes. They do.
Necessary writing is reality writing. It’s not always the prettiest, most brilliant work you can do, but it gets the job done. It’s the One Foot in Front of the Other work. If it helps to make it small bites, do that. I’m getting pretty good at working on some projects for 30 min – 1 hour and then moving to something else. By taking my lunch to work, not only am I saving money and calories, but I’m able to work on my projects while I’m “on lunch”.
It comes down to what you really want as a writer. If you want the TV writing life, then good luck to you. You have better odds winning the lottery – or you’ll have to WIN the lottery to be able to accomplish that. If you really want to write then you have to be ready to what’s necessary. Even if it’s writing something else while you should be writing Project X.