Things being an intern has taught me

[megwrites]

My little internship at Unnamed Publishing Company is not going so very well. It's not the worst job I've ever had, but it's certainly not the best. The company I work for is not really a literary publisher, so I'm keeping in mind that a job at a more literary press/company might be more my speed.

Still, this internship and this job? Not. Working.

At this point in my life, I'm past the, "What the hell do I want to be?" question. I know precisely what I want to be and it's what I've wanted to be since I was eight: A Writer.

BUT. Being a writer pays peanuts. Actually, less than peanuts, because peanuts you could live off of. I've got bills and loans that need paying. The people at the bank care about as much about my happiness and my dreams as lions care about the fleas on the back of the antelope they're about to bring down and suffocate with their razor sharp teeth.

I bet there are maybe five hundred people on the whole of planet Earth who make enough to make their living solely off of writing. Five hundred out of six billion...carry the four...and...yeah.

My odds suck. Hence, having a day job.

The year of unemployment that preceded having this internship taught me that, if I didn't have to worry about money, I wouldn't even consider having a job. I'd write. And I'd love it, and it would fulfill me and I'd be happy as a clam in a gram of spam (trust me, this is great happiness).

The question now is, "How the frick do I keep food on the table and not make myself miserable doing it?"

My f-list is mostly composed of writer, and entirely composed of very intelligent folks. So maybe I could pose a question.

What kind of day jobs do you think match well with being a writer? What about them makes them compatible with writing (especially writing with publication in mind) and how does one go about getting said job?

Comments

[aberrant1.livejournal.com]

I was an editor for four years. I hated it. It sucked all my writing ability out of my brain and did its best to bore me to death. I also was barely making enough to live on.

I'm lucky, as writers go. I'm never going to make a living writing, and I've come to realize that's a good thing, because if I could, I would. And I would become a depressed, crazy hermit and never leave my apartment. My writing would also suck. Lucky for me, I have other interests, and I decided for a variety of reasons to go into wildlife conservation. I started looking for wildlife jobs, got an internship, quit my nice, steady, boring editing job, and discovered that I should've been working out in the woods all along.

Of course, now I'm struggling like hell to line up my next wildlife job (I'm on the second now; they're almost all temporary, and pay less than peanuts). And I will probably never make more than the bare minimum for groceries and rent. So, you know. Financially, it was a terrible decision. But as for my sanity, it was the best decision I've ever made. And I'm writing more now, too.

So, my advice? Pick something totally unrelated to writing. Save the writing and editing skills for your own writing instead of exhausting them at work.

[ladyslvr.livejournal.com]

Probably the best job for a writer is professional spouse. The second best is probably some kind of teacher because you'll get several chunks of the year when you can actually focus on your writing instead of your job.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Physical labor.

I had plenty of time to think when I was digging test pits.

The trick is not to do anything that uses up all your mental juice on the job.

[affinity8.livejournal.com]

You're struggling with the same kinds of questions that have plagued writers for centuries, me thinks.

I do think there are more than 500 writers living solely off their writing, however! So the trick is to transform yourself into one of them. It'll probably take several years, though.

I'm all for mindless temping and day jobs that don't require any mental energy at all. Hard to find, though.