If this is you...
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| via indipepper.com |
then you must have graduated college and are currently blinking around, bewildered.
I know, shocker: the world just ain't about giving writers (or anyone, for that matter,) a free ride. Didn't see that one coming. (I'm only being half-heartedly sarcastic here –– I left college bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to take on the world with a notebook. So...I feel your feels.)
Looks like you have two options:
- Go to grad school, start teaching, and keep on chugging with your writing.
- Get a day-job and keep on chugging with your writing.
I currently find myself landing in category #2. I decided to take time off to earn money, get work experience, make my way, yada yada. It's going swell so far –– except that whole "I'm so tired my eyes are burning and I can't look at anything but my eyelids" problem. Upside: I have money. Not an abundance, but it's fun to not be poor. Downside: I've been so absurdly busy for so long that I can't remember what it feels like to relax. Working a day job and keeping up your writing practice is no easy feat, but I promise it's worthwhile if you can manage it.
Personally, it keeps me from feeling like this:
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| via tumblr.com. |
Doctor.
Ken Kesey:
Acid guinea pig. Night attendant at a psychiatric hospital.
John Steinbeck:
Tour guide and caretaker at a fish hatchery. Small business owner. (He manufactured plastic mannequins.)
Wallace Stevens:
Executive at an insurance company. Also, a lawyer before that.
“But after living there [in a world of the imagination] to the degree that a poet does, the desire to get back to the everyday world becomes so keen that one turns away from the imaginative world in a most definite and determined way.”
Archibald MacLeish:
Ran the Library of Congress.
Thomas Lynch:
Undertaker.
Herman Melville:
Bank clerk. Cabin boy. Sailor. Beachcomber. Customs inspector.
Philip Larkin:
Librarian.
"The only thing that does strike me as odd, looking back, is that what society has been willing to pay me for is being a librarian."
William S. Burroughs:
Exterminator.
Agatha Christie:
Apothecaries' assistant.
Kurt Vonnegut:
Car salesman.
"The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake."
Charles Dickens:
Factory worker. Journalist. Legal clerk.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky:
Engineer.
Jack Kerouac:
Cotton picker. Dishwasher. Night guard. Gas station attendant. Fire lookout. Deckhand. Railroad brakeman.
“What's in store for me in the direction I don't take?”
Arthur Conan Doyle:
Ship's doctor. Surgen.
Jack London:
Oyster-Pirate. Member of the CA Fish Patrol. Pacific seal hunter. Jute mill worker.
Franz Kafka:
Legal clerk. Compensation assessor. Asbestos factory co-founder.
Charles Bukowski:
Postal clerk.
“How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 8:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?”
George Orwell:
Imperial police officer in India.
Robert Frost:
Teacher. Farmer. Lightbulb-filament-factory worker.
J.D. Salinger:
Activities director on a luxury cruise ship. Solider in the counter-intelligence division.
Stephen King:
High-school janitor.
T.S. Eliot:
Bank clerk, and then an Editor, and eventually a Director for Faber & Faber.
"If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?"
William Faulkner:
Postmaster at the University of Mississippi.
Richard Wright:
Letter-sorter in a post office.
James Joyce:
Singer and pianist. Cinema operator. Teacher.
"Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home."
Langston Hughes:
Bus boy.
Does it surprise you to see so many famous names up here? I have to admit, I was surprised and also a little pleased that so many famous writers have day-jobs. Perhaps there's some hope for all us hopeless poets and writers after all. Like I said in the title of this post:
If they can do it, so can we.
P.S. Here are my sources, in case you're feeling curious:
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