04 January 2007
A writer's life
And this is my, um, ideal life.
John Scalzi (author of Old Man's War and other books and things, writes above about his life of a writer. He says some great things about the struggles of a "successful" freelance writer and author, and other comments about working at home. This part resonates with me:
This is true for me to. Everyone says: "It must be great to work from home." There are many benefits, but there are drawbacks, too. I'm constantly distracted by everything else to do around the house. Even though I'm essentially an introvert, I do miss people - you can only get so much from emails and IMs. And my employer sees working at home as a benefit in itself, so I don't get many others.
People even say, "Oh you work from home, you can take care of your son, then." Have we already lost the perspective of a generation or less ago when the majority of mom's stayed at home with the kids? That was it's own job. Do they really expect that I can get actual productive work done AND give my two year old a decent about of attention?
But John's post also alludes to the hard work of writing - the constant work, the struggle to create, and to manage your own business. I'd like to be a full time writer. I just have to buck up and accept that it's not easy. I can do that.
John Scalzi (author of Old Man's War and other books and things, writes above about his life of a writer. He says some great things about the struggles of a "successful" freelance writer and author, and other comments about working at home. This part resonates with me:
"I see two objections here. The first [is] the practical one: at least you work from home. Well, this is true. On the other hand, people who don't work at home idealize the working from home scenario. "
This is true for me to. Everyone says: "It must be great to work from home." There are many benefits, but there are drawbacks, too. I'm constantly distracted by everything else to do around the house. Even though I'm essentially an introvert, I do miss people - you can only get so much from emails and IMs. And my employer sees working at home as a benefit in itself, so I don't get many others.
People even say, "Oh you work from home, you can take care of your son, then." Have we already lost the perspective of a generation or less ago when the majority of mom's stayed at home with the kids? That was it's own job. Do they really expect that I can get actual productive work done AND give my two year old a decent about of attention?
But John's post also alludes to the hard work of writing - the constant work, the struggle to create, and to manage your own business. I'd like to be a full time writer. I just have to buck up and accept that it's not easy. I can do that.
Labels: John Scalzi, working at home, writing
