Working to Write

Paradoxy has been dark for many weeks over the holidays -- but not necessarily because of the holidays. My news is: I've accepted a full-time editorial job in the education industry. And what does this mean for my fiction-writing schedule -- or my blogging schedule -- you might ask?

Got to get up early in the mornin'

It's an interesting conundrum: how to make a living while investing in your fiction writing career. I personally know one young adult author who, after signing a three-book contract with an excellent Y/A publisher, is back to looking for full-time work. The common advice: Don't quit your day job...just yet applies even to writers with a signed contract in hand. According to lit agent Jessica Faust, fewer than ten percent of fiction writers make a living solely by writing books.

If a Book Falls in the Forest...Lessons from The Book Thief.

I'm reading an astonishing YA novel, The Book Thief. Heard of it, by chance? I'm probably the last aspiring kid writer on the planet to read it, but I am flabbergasted by Zusak's use of language, his wit, his inventiveness, and his take-no-prisoners approach to historical fiction. Zusak must break every rule, contort every piece of advice, I've ever read or heard about writing for children, and it's brilliant. Just as inspiring is Zusak's contention in the video below that even if he knew, in advance, that not a single person would ever read his book, that it would never be published, that it would sink into obscurity, he still would have written it. In exactly that way.

Writing is Hard. Isn't it??

Dave Smith: Don't say
I didn't warn you.

I'm going to piggyback off of L.G. Smith's post over at Bards and Prophets today--in brief, because Friday is a sunup to sundown WIP-day for me. Smith sums up the difficulty question with a quote from Ellen Gilchrist, who points out, more eloquently than I can here, that we writers had better not give up our day jobs. And further,  prepare to be disappointed.

My old teacher, poet Dave Smith, (no relation to L.G.) sat me down and gave me similar advice many, many years ago, when I was planning to study for an MA in poetry writing (can you imagine any graduate degree less practical?) He said that even if I did eventually land a university job (after publishing two or three books, minimum), it was a long way off, and a crap shoot. And did I really want to do this?