Writing for pay is the dream of nearly every writer. But actually doing it is a completely different reality than dreaming about it. Rarely does the reality measure up to aspirations - unless, perhaps, you’re Stephen King or James Patterson.
For most of us, though, real-world writing jobs feel more like jobs than they do dreams-come-true. While real-world writing jobs don’t exactly require First Aid kits, you sometimes may feel like they do.
I’ve been blessed to have many jobs that involve writing. Not all of them have been creatively satisfying, though. Case in point? Need an example? Okay.
I once worked a writing job for a fellow in the industrial weights and measures biz. I created both a product catalog in print, and a Web site for him. Plenty of “writing” involved. Zero creativity. Put it paid the bills for a while. I appreciated the experience. But not exactly the same as writing a screenplay or a novel, eh?
I’ve done a lot of time in journalism, as well. There’s a bit of room for creativity in feature writing and sports, but news is fairly straightforward if you do it right. There is some great satisfaction to be had in working 35 of out 48 hours to compose 15-20 stories and put a weekly issue to bed, but it’s not so much a creative rush as it is the sort of high a game-coder gets from finally debugging his last bit of code and creating a final build. It’s a post-adrenaline rush high, with a huge crash after.
I’m not putting down any of these writing jobs, but I am saying they’re not exactly what one envisions when they’re in high school dreaming of being a writer. Fair warning, kids: being a writer IS work.
