Dear Reader,
“Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so?
There's a support group for that. It's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar.”
― Drew Carey
There's a support group for that. It's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar.”
― Drew Carey
This letter is in defense of you and most of all me on having a bad, awful, crappy job, and why we need it. It’s also a letter I have been avoiding writing for sometimes now because I’m sure I’m going to tell myself some hard truths here, ones I care not to think about, but as of this very moment I need to face them.
I am heading into a new full-time job which should have started yesterday but something came up, and it looks like I’m not starting until Monday. So, I have a weekend to write, edit, and enjoy myself which I plan on doing a lot of before I start. The job is paying better than the one I have now or had, but it is not something I care to spend the rest of my life doing. It is, however, something I need to do. I need to work, make money, and most of all suck it up deal with it.
There is a reason for this, not just because I am an adult now and a part of adult life is you hate your job. Most people hate their jobs more than dealing with their crazy uncle at Thanksgiving, let that sit with you for a moment. The job you are doing right now and the one you hate is what most people spend their lives doing …sad but needed.
I once read in ‘On Writing’ by Stephan King where he talked about working twelve hours at a factory job while he still wrote a thousand or so words a day. He would write these words on his lunch breaks or when he got home from work and write more on his days off. He worked this hellish job because it turns out you can write well if you died from starvation, I know, odd, huh?
But he also talked about in that book how he would have written for the mere enjoyment of it. King making it big is great to him, and he is truly thankful for his success. I know this for two reasons, one being he had said it, and the second is he gives a lot of his money way to help people. He states somewhere in the pages of ‘On Writing’ that writing is something he would have done for free. He loves it, he enjoys it, and it is what God put him on this earth to do, I think we are all thankful for that.
Another great writer or poet who worked his life away is Charles Bukowski (<- you should follow that link to see a great video). He worked twenty or so years in the post office going mad and drinking himself to death. He quit that hell only to find a new one, but it was one where the demons laughed with him at his silly words. Now, during those years of beating his head against the walls of the post office, he wrote every night after work. He went home, wrote, drank, and got a nice “fuck-job,” but keep writing.
One more writer for me to talk in this blog and you all know it's going to be David Foster Wallace. Now, I don’t know if this is true or not, but it doesn’t matter. In the movie The End of the Tour (which is on Netflix by the way, wink, wink,) both characters are on an airplane talking about all the awful jobs they had during their lives before they made it as writers. David Foster Wallace had a lot of crappy jobs before he made any kind of living with his books, but he kept writing.
Do you see the theme running through all of this yet?
No matter what, keep writing. If you make money at it, keep writing. If you make no money at it, keep writing. If you work twelve hours days, come home, and keep writing. If you work no hours, stressed out about how you are going to eat today, not even thinking about tomorrow, keep writing.
Work is good for the soul. Awful work is good for the character because if you (in this case me) can get up every morning go to a job that I wouldn’t mind never having again, and still come home to work on what I love, then that passion, that love you are working, is all that matters. Yes, some days it is going to be hard to write, you should write even more on those days. Sure, some days, all you are going to be doing is wanting to rush home to write, and you should do that after your job.
Now, I know, a lot of work I do, and you do is dull. In fact, it is more than likely mind numbing dull, but there is good in that mind numbing-ness (<- not a word) of the job, it will give you time to think about your writing or take a break from it.
Chuck Palahniuk on the Joe Rogan show talks about when he gets stuck in a story he goes to the gym. He is blessed because he doesn’t have to work a nine to five job but can take those breaks when he needs it. But we the poor folk here, are forced to take breaks by going to our jobs. When I’m at work, my mind drops back to my stories, and I work on things within my head. After hours are over and my feet hurt, I rush home to get everything out of my head to the page. I can’t tell you how many stories I have written at my job because I had to stay in my head.
I think, (and hold me to this) if I ever make it, big or not, I want to stay a man who works like everyone else. The idea of having a nine to five job sounds like hell, but you have to go through Hell to get Heaven. There is something good about working, no matter how bad the job is, you have it. You have money, and you can eat, and you can buy books, and most of all you can still write.
So, what am I saying …which I think you know … if you are a writer, keep writing. If you are an artist, keep painting. If you are a singer, keep singing, but do all these even when you have that job that you hate more than anything. It is better to test your passions than to give up on them.
With a Handshake,
Chase
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmc21V-zBq0
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