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Thank The Writing Gods For Your Boring, Mindless Job

There is nothing better for a writer than a profession that asks very little of the mind

David Todd McCarty
Ellemeno
Published in
12 min readJan 17, 2025

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The worst thing a writer can do for work is anything that might possibly be misconstrued as intellectually stimulating or emotionally rewarding. There are exceptions, of course, but those are for the sort of people who can work two full-time jobs and do both equally well. They’re not normal human beings. Your average artistic soul can handle just one outlet for their creativity at a time. If your vocation consumes all your creative juices, there is nothing left for your art.

I run into this all the time. Would-be artists who are dissatisfied with their current employment because they feel it isn’t emotionally or intellectually rewarding. If you have any artistic intentions at all, you don’t want an intellectually stimulating job. You want a dumb job. A stupid job. Something almost anyone can do. Menial labor. Mindless function. That’s what you’re looking for. If you’re extremely lucky, you will find something to do that pays well but that you could do in your sleep if need be. As the protagonist in American Beauty says, “I’m looking for a job with the least…

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Ellemeno
Ellemeno

Published in Ellemeno

A literary journal dedicated to the exploration of life, memoir, culture, travel, and writing.

David Todd McCarty
David Todd McCarty

Written by David Todd McCarty

A cranky romantic searching for hope and humor. I tell stories. Most of them are true. I’m not at all interested in your outrage, but I do feel your pain.

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