October hosta
For about 48 hours after the GG announcement, I found it very amusing to narrate my life by captioning all activities with "GG finalist, Carrie Snyder ...", as in "GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, is going to finish these supper dishes before anyone gets a bedtime snack," or, "GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, would like a cup of tea and a back rub." I'm not sure anyone else found it quite so amusing.
But it amused me this morning too, as GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, stood on a stool in the downstairs bathroom attempting to remove spiderwebs with a wad of toilet paper, and a giant nest fell down her sweater sleeve. ("I told you that bathroom is infested, Mom!" "Yeah, there's definitely a weird looking nest above the sink." "That's an orb spider." "A what?!" "Don't worry, it's not poisonous.") It continued to amuse me as GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, trudged upstairs to clean the bathroom floor. ("Someone peed on the floor!" "There's pee in the upstairs bathroom!" "Somebody missed the toilet!") And the fun kept on rolling as GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, sorted a dark load of laundry while repeatedly shouting up the steps, "I'm in the basement, come down if you want me to zip you up!" Apparently, GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, had misheard the request. "He said that he wants you to pick him up from nursery school." "Oh." Sorry kid, but GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, is leading a writing workshop for high school students this afternoon, and can't. GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, also has a vague toothache in the very same spot where the dentist put in a filling last winter (remember that?), which seems like ominous timing given she's flying to Vancouver in two days. GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, is also panicking slightly about what to pack for her trip (how many shoes can she fit into a carry-on bag?). GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, got up in the middle of the night to turn off her alarm and did not go to yoga this morning. Despite getting extra sleep, GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, did not look fabulous in the mirror this morning; she really should have gone to yoga.
GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, is putting the hammer down. Stop this now, GG finalist, Carrie Snyder.
This feels like a miscellany day. I've been having some random and more serious thoughts on a related subject.
It's the subject of being paid for one's writing. The Globe and Mail (a newspaper in Canada) is going to attempt a "paywall," by asking subscribers to pay for content; apparently, readers are not pleased. The New York Times does this as well, and the truth is, ever since it did, I've stopped reading NYTimes articles online. And I'm a writer! I get that writers and editors need to be paid for the work they do, and I respect the work that they do; so why not pay for quality online content? I think the answer is three-fold: one, I'm lazy and it seems like too much work to set up an account and try to remember passwords, etc.; two, I still get most of my news from the daily paper and from CBC radio; and three, there's a ton of free content online.
Let's address that final issue. I write a blog. I provide free content, practically every day! I understand why professional writers dislike bloggers -- professional writers would like to make a living doing what they do, thanks very much. Most bloggers, like me, do this in our spare time. I have no desire to monetize my blog, nor to figure out how to make money off of it, mainly because I do it for fun. It would change everything to try to blog for a living.
That said, here I am, trying to write for a living. It's dismal to report, but freelance rates, per word, have actually gone down since I first started freelancing, over a decade ago. I'm not sure freelance writing (for magazines and newspapers) was ever an excellent money-making occupation, but in today's climate it's an excellent way to sponge off your spouse. So, is being a writer a sustainable occupation?
GG finalist, Carrie Snyder, has yet to figure out how to make it so.
And it isn't for lack of trying. I'm beginning to wonder whether being a writer, a serious writer of fiction with hopeful freelancing on the side, is in actual fact a hobby, or an act of volunteerism, or of love, or of obsession, rather than being what one could legitimately call an occupation. A job.
This isn't meant to be a pity-me rant. I don't feel pitiable, not at all; I've been doing exactly what I want to do; and I do make (some) money at it. Nevertheless, I feel prepared to look at coolly at my options and draw some fairly harsh conclusions. Our four kids need more than I can offer them as a writer; and I don't believe the burden should be carried unequally by Kevin. The question is: what, then? Well, I've got some ideas, to be revealed in good time. For the immediate present, I'm sticking with the status quo, doing the freelance jobs that come in, working on a new book, applying for grants, hustling, and jumping up and down for The Juliet Stories. And blogging.
I love writing. I never started writing fiction thinking that it would earn me a living; and that wasn't why I started blogging either. With my writing, every step along the way has felt like a gift: the first time I had a poem accepted for publication; the first time an editor at a magazine wrote back to tell me she liked my story (even though she was turning it down); the first time I earned a grant for an unfinished manuscript; the first time an editor called to tell me that she loved my book and wanted to publish it; and on and on. In between all of these steps were innumerable impersonal rejection letters, fat self-addressed envelopes stuffed with rejected stories, and, once I'd acquired an agent (another exciting step), calls of reassurance that also brought news of "no, thanks." None of this could have been undertaken if it weren't answering an extreme personal call -- a deep probably irrational desire -- to keep writing, keep learning, keep practicing the craft. None of this would have been undertaken if I hadn't loved doing it.
Certainly, none of it was undertaken with an idea of dollar signs dancing in my head, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I'm a highly impractical person, and I encourage my kids to dream impractically too. To pursue doing what they love, no matter what it pays in monetary terms.
But the thing is, we also have to figure out how to pay the bills. That's where I'm at right now. I'm doing what I love, and I'll keep doing it forever; but I'm going to have to do something else, too. My word of the year, this year, was actually two words: work and play. An interesting, difficult, troublesome choice, I think, and prescient.Labels: Big Thoughts, blogging, chores, fall, house, kids, play, prizes, word of the year, work, writing