Your life doesn’t want you to write fiction
The iconic Virginia Woolf once wrote, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” In contemporary society, I think this applies to men now as well, given that women work full-time outside the home and men assist with child-rearing and housework. (Debates on that dynamic are a completely different topic.)
Although Woolf also covers this point, I think the most important variable in the fiction equation is available time.
Writing fiction requires concentration and privacy — after having a solid idea to begin with. From there, the only way to bring a work of fiction to fruition is to have time to yourself.
Yet most published authors still work a day job while developing fiction evenings and weekends. In addition to that day job there are pesky little commitments like families and friends; in general, some semblance of a social life. Among the expectations of real day-to-day life, writers need to carve out and fiercely defend time for writing. Spouses and friends probably won’t understand, even if they think knowing a writer is cool or interesting.
I don’t want this post to sound like a list of complaints. I’m merely trying to connect to other writers to say, “It’s not just you. You’re not the only one.” It’s frustrating feeling like you have to fight to do something that seems so important, even if you’re the only one for which it matters.
I wish I could quote figures as to how many books are published in a given year by authors not earning their living off books and therefore not able to give their work undivided attention daily. I’m not sure there is a reliable way of getting that information, but I can tell you the chances are extremely high that any non-celebrity author you read is working another job, which may or may not be related to writing. Some are teachers, librarians, lawyers, doctors, accountants, and many, many other professions.
Once up on a time, I was trained for a career in journalism and communications, working mostly in the latter, although I used to write journalistic articles on a freelance basis. I freelanced in connection to my day job as an employment counsellor (although the role was really half resume and job search assistance, half project coordination). I’ve worked as a communications specialist, blogger, SEO copywriter, content strategist, and technical writer. I’ve been extremely lucky to weave a thread of writing through most things I do in life. I’ve also been rejected countless times — both from the literary world and the corporate one.
At the moment, I am home with two small children, waiting for my older son to start kindergarten in the fall. My last maternity leave became extended into plain old unemployment when my previous employer folded. For a writer, being laid off, having a contract end, or having no job to return to after leave can actually be an opportunity in disguise. The income may be gone, but in it’s place is that precious commodity — time — in which to create without having to push aside people and responsibilities that resist being moved.
It’s not lucrative and it won’t last forever (and with small children at home there’s very little creative time anyway), but for now, I have stolen moments of nap time, early bedtimes, and the occasional captivating movie during which I can put one foot in front of the other towards new characters and new stories. I can only hope they will one day be interesting to other people too.
Originally published at christine-hart.blogspot.ca on April 11, 2016.
