Day Job

Eden Robbins is guest blogging over at Eclectic Days while Jeff VanderMeer is on his Finch/Booklife whirlwind tour. Robbins’ used Booklife as a touchstone to discuss whether and when a writer should quit their day job to pursue their passion.

She lists her “rules for choosing and thriving in a day job” and the first is that said job must not involve writing. But there is an exception:

1a. The exception to this rule is what I have heard called “word math.” This is basically writing that doesn’t take much creative initiative, or writing about a subject that you know so well that it takes almost no energy to do. Curriculum, web copy, press releases, that sort of thing. Word math.

I have been working as a word mathematician for the past two years, though this is the first I’ve heard of that term. I work as a freelance copy writer and produce web content for a variety of sources and clients. The pay is decent- better than when I was working as a pharmacy technician- and the hours are whatever I would like.

But the best advantage of being a word mathematician is that it got me used to treating writing like any other job related task. When you’re a cashier, you can’t refuse to ring up a customer because you have cashier’s block. You have a limited number of breaks and sick days and excuses you can file before the job is no longer yours.

But writing- fiction and nonfiction, strenuous and light- tends to have the reputation of a mysterious rebel who can come and go as he pleases and that best be respected. There’s talk of inspiration and muses and creative flow.

Needing to pay the electric bill is tremendous inspiration. Having to write in order to make a living has made it a lot easier for me to do other forms of writing. I’m currently writing “word math” for five hours a day and fiction for a few more hours. I am also in my final year of a Journalism degree, which carries its own writing load.

Do I suffer word burnout on occasion? Of course. But I have become a much stronger writer in the past two years because writing is now a scheduled daily activity rather than a side task that must be worked around other events.