Work and Money, Bread and Honey
Nov. 21st, 2025 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saxbrightwellOn Work
It's been a grey, grim November. My shift pattern can be quite variable and this month the variation was "working a hell of a lot." I had to get quite firm with myself about cooking One Batch of a food right before a string of shifts and letting my family either eat it or prepare their own alternatives. Even the youngest kiddo can do that now. This kind of pace teaches me that while working part-time keeps me balanced and stimulated and therefore writing better on my time off, working closer to full-time drains me and turns writing into a struggle. I'm lucky that we can afford for me to work part-time.
I remember once, while I was in training, my sister asked me, "Do you think you were born to be a [my job]?"
I didn't have to think about it very long. I told her, "No. It feels more like a good arranged marriage, one I'm going into with my eyes open. I know I'll be good at it and like it fine, and in return it will pay well." And that has stayed true!
I think with the majority of jobs the world needs, that's the best that can be hoped for: a decent fit and good compensation. Anyone not violently ill-suited or ill-treated in their position will become at least somewhat passionate about its importance and how its associated tasks should best be done. But as an adult I've come to reject the childhood notion that what you get paid for is what you "grow up to be" - what you are, often all that you are. People are multi-faceted! We care about multiple things at once, not just our jobs! Heck, the most important activity in my life, raising my kids, is something that makes no money at all and in fact costs quite a bit of money.
I think the dream of celebrity - becoming wealthy, and beloved by strangers, for being beautiful or creative or a talented performer - comes back to the same source as "what will you grow up to be?" The "Protestant work ethic" is the idiom for it in English, I guess, although the idea that "what you do is what you are" is far from confined to Protestants. The modern capitalist iteration, that only what you get paid for is what you "do," is even bleaker.
I guess all these ramblings are stemming from one of today's Mastodon writing memes, which led me to reflect on how "succeeding" as a writer - meaning selling enough writing to do it as a primary or even sole career - is a lot like succeeding as an actor or musician or other artist, and with a comparable lottery-like chance of it happening. But, just like other arts, that's no reason not to do it at all. Storytelling is an innate human activity, and it doesn't have to bring in six figures a year to bring satisfaction and joy.
Shameless Huckster Moment
All that said, my books are still for sale. Today, one of them is on sale! Low Dawn got picked up for a pre-Black Friday Kobo promo. Canadian and American readers can get it for $1.99 (in both countries) here until the 24th.
Book 5 Progress
Between working to exhaustion and a touch of the ol' seasonal depression, I slowed down again, but I haven't stopped. And I have some longer stretches of time off coming up that I have high hopes of filling with pomodoros. The scent of that finish line is still tantalizing.
It's been a grey, grim November. My shift pattern can be quite variable and this month the variation was "working a hell of a lot." I had to get quite firm with myself about cooking One Batch of a food right before a string of shifts and letting my family either eat it or prepare their own alternatives. Even the youngest kiddo can do that now. This kind of pace teaches me that while working part-time keeps me balanced and stimulated and therefore writing better on my time off, working closer to full-time drains me and turns writing into a struggle. I'm lucky that we can afford for me to work part-time.
I remember once, while I was in training, my sister asked me, "Do you think you were born to be a [my job]?"
I didn't have to think about it very long. I told her, "No. It feels more like a good arranged marriage, one I'm going into with my eyes open. I know I'll be good at it and like it fine, and in return it will pay well." And that has stayed true!
I think with the majority of jobs the world needs, that's the best that can be hoped for: a decent fit and good compensation. Anyone not violently ill-suited or ill-treated in their position will become at least somewhat passionate about its importance and how its associated tasks should best be done. But as an adult I've come to reject the childhood notion that what you get paid for is what you "grow up to be" - what you are, often all that you are. People are multi-faceted! We care about multiple things at once, not just our jobs! Heck, the most important activity in my life, raising my kids, is something that makes no money at all and in fact costs quite a bit of money.
I think the dream of celebrity - becoming wealthy, and beloved by strangers, for being beautiful or creative or a talented performer - comes back to the same source as "what will you grow up to be?" The "Protestant work ethic" is the idiom for it in English, I guess, although the idea that "what you do is what you are" is far from confined to Protestants. The modern capitalist iteration, that only what you get paid for is what you "do," is even bleaker.
I guess all these ramblings are stemming from one of today's Mastodon writing memes, which led me to reflect on how "succeeding" as a writer - meaning selling enough writing to do it as a primary or even sole career - is a lot like succeeding as an actor or musician or other artist, and with a comparable lottery-like chance of it happening. But, just like other arts, that's no reason not to do it at all. Storytelling is an innate human activity, and it doesn't have to bring in six figures a year to bring satisfaction and joy.
Shameless Huckster Moment
All that said, my books are still for sale. Today, one of them is on sale! Low Dawn got picked up for a pre-Black Friday Kobo promo. Canadian and American readers can get it for $1.99 (in both countries) here until the 24th.
Book 5 Progress
Between working to exhaustion and a touch of the ol' seasonal depression, I slowed down again, but I haven't stopped. And I have some longer stretches of time off coming up that I have high hopes of filling with pomodoros. The scent of that finish line is still tantalizing.
