If you write something and you get a check for it, it doesn’t bounce, and then you go pay the electric bill with it, you’re a professional writer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I think it may have been Stephen King. I’m not a fan of his fiction particularly, but I’m very fond of what he has to say about being<\/em> a writer.<\/p>\n Well, I’m a professional writer. It’s weird to wrap my mind around that. I don’t earn all<\/em> of my living writing, but I don’t earn all of my living doing any <\/em>one thing. I teach, give advice… buncha stuff. I was asked in the gym a couple of days ago where I worked. When I said I was self-employed, she asked me, “Doing what?”<\/p>\n Um… Everything?<\/p>\n I didn’t self-identify as a writer the first time I earned money as a writer1<\/sup>. To this day, I do not know why. I think I had the idea that “real” writers saw their work in bookstores. It bothers me, sometimes, that I did not embrace the label. I think I might have been more serious about my career. But I only saw it in terms of big magazine sales or book contracts.<\/p>\n I remember all the pre-Internet advice on getting started freelancing. What no-one said, and I wish someone had was, “Don’t sell yourself short, but don’t be afraid of the chump change assignments at first. Everyone pays their dues in a profession.”<\/p>\n I’ll be the first to say that the skill of good<\/em> writing is shamelessly undervalued. A “real” published author of my acquaintance cautioned me that she could have earned more per hour working at McDonald’s than she did on a book I had been rather fulsome in praising.<\/p>\n True enough, but you cannot flip burgers from your writin’ chair, either! I mean, this is my office!<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n
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