"A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings but a cat does not." -Ernest Hemingway

Monday, March 28, 2011

Living the Luxurious Life of a Writer: Is it fact or fantasy?

Ah, I’m finally living the luxurious life of a writer!  I never have to wake to the blasting alarm clock again, every day I can sit by the water’s edge and write my next umpteenth New York Times bestseller and all the while sipping on one liquid libation after the other.  Any day now I know my phone will interrupt me with the sound of a new text.  It will be from my agent and she’ll inform me she’s scheduled an interview with Oprah for she wants to feature me in her next magazine article titled, Living the Luxurious Life of a Writer.  Welcome to my fantasy writing world.  How about you, do you have a fantasy writing world? 

The fact is I am finally living the luxurious life of a writer.  I sit by the water’s edge every day and write (true it’s only a fountain) and I am working on my next umpteenth story (you never know!), but hey I never have to wake to a blasting alarm clock again and besides what’s wrong with one diet coke after the other, it has zero calories!  One of the numerous things I find best about being a writer is when you’re caught up in the stories you write you can be anyone, you can be anywhere in the world or beyond and you can even have magical powers if you choose.  It’s also the only profession I know of where you can literally get away with murder. 

But let’s face it, writing is a job and for most writers it comes with its own self inflicted job description.  By that I mean there are no company guidelines like dress codes, attendance policies or performance expectations only an internal drive to do whatever it takes to write.  


However, should you have company guidelines?  In my personal experience, I find approaching my writing life as the CEO of the company keeps me focused and engaged.  Sure my dress code may be a little different than your typical Fortune 500 company, not to mention the salary, but I find my attendance policy and performance expectations to be higher.  My company doesn’t offer sick leave or vacation days, we do not accept failure as an option and we believe in helping others become successful.  How about you, does your company have guidelines?  

Next week, we’ll be exploring whether or not you should turn your writing life into an actual company or not.
  
Until then,
T.K. Millin
The Unknown Author  

4 comments:

  1. I think all writers have fantasies of being super successful... it comes with the territory of living in an imaginary world half the time. For me... reality is my subconscious 50% of the time and pieces of actuality the other half. Should we run our life like a company? Sure... but it's an imaginary company and the characters we create are the imaginary shareholders.

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  2. Austin, very poetically put! Thank you.

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  3. Back in 1989, there was a movie, She Devil starring Roseanne Barr. Meryl Streep played the role of a romance writer, living most lavishly. If I close my eyes, I can pretend that's my writer life. It all disappears when I open them, but the dress code and lack of commute definitely has its perks!

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  4. She Devil was a great movie and Meryl Streep was fantastic, as usual. I definitely agree about the dress code and the lack of commute, not to mention my fellow peers (cats and a dog!)

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