Why?
It helps to get buy during the dry years when you aren't making any cash, especially with the medical insurance and such.
If my wife didn't have a real job I think it's safe to say I wouldn't be writing my 18th, 19th and 20th (not counting the 5 I wrote for book packagers) books now. Her having the real job gave me the flexibility I needed to focus on my writing. Now we need one of these movie options to turn into a full blown movie so SHE can take a year or two off if she'd like.
I don't have a Significant Other, and I do all right on my own. There's no way in hell I'd want to live off a man while waiting to make money from my writing. Or even after then. It's possible to support yourself and write at the same time. Not always easy, but still possible.
Besides I wasn't living off my wife (at least I hope I wasn't) I was being a "house dad" which got me a lot of weird looks when we were living in Costa Rica.
do you have good health insurance? kids? you have to factor in the fact that for one person it's 'not always easy,' but could you stretch out your earnings to cover two people for years and still have a comfortable lifestyle, meaning ramen noodles aren't a mainstay of your diet? i assume that in scotland you've got state-run health care, but in america it's not like that at all.
Why would my earnings have to cover two people? Could they not work too?
What I've learned so far:
- Don't get too down when you get negative feedback or hit a roadblock. They're unavoidable.
- Savor the small victories.
- Writing a story timeline can preclude many mistakes.
- Writing should be a joy, even when it's not fun.
I'd walk around with a "Kick Me" sign on my back for the rest of my life if it meant I could be a house dad.
Scabby has spoken. I concede.
What small victories?
caw
I'm stealing that line and hopefully I'll get to use it one day."I have to quit because I feel the job draining my soul."
1) Write like your face is on fire.
let me rephrase it then: could you support yourself and your painter husband if that's all he did? assuming of course he's like most painters and poor. (maybe painters aren't the best example, but it'll do on the surface, i hope.) or could you support yourself and a child (let's say the father was run over by a leprechaun stampede, stabbed by mugging unicorns and finally ripped apart by drunken irish grizzly bears)?
granted, i can't honestly say there's no truth to the 'starve a dog and it'll work for you' mentality, but is that really the best we can hope for, that we achieve the exalted status of hungry mutts?