I'm late posting this, because I have been working a day job for the last six weeks that has been exhausting. I write and produced on-air fundraising for Channel Thirteen in New York, and the job built up to a six hour music marathon on Saturday.
It was wild and crazy, live TV at its most challenging as we changed line-ups and segment lengths and orders to adjust our message as we enlisted new members. I am sorry I didn't get a longer blog up, but -- well, the reality of writing is that unless you are Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, you still need to work to pay the bills.
My cast and crew were great, I am exhausted, but the reward of the night was getting to meet Ronnie Spector, who was small enough to fit in my jacket pocket for a living Rock and Roll legend. There are some fun rewards of a day job from time to time, and I am going to appreciate the free time to write for the next few weeks even more as I look for the next gig.
Time was I could do eight hours of day job and four hours of writing every day. And my day jobs have always been in human services or education, which means a lot of emotional and intellectual energy goes in to paying the mortgage. Now adays I don't seem to have that level of stamina available. After decades of living on five to six hours of sleep, I now need seven or even eight if I'm to make it through the day without either taking a nap or functioning on autopilot. I'm having to put some thought into how I do my day job and how much time I can alot for writing. I really had expected my career to be Stephen King strata by this point. Of course I'd also intended to be living on a space station by now. I'm a bit closer to one goal than the other, but not by much. Day jobs can be rewarding, but they do eat into the writing time.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to make a frivolous comment in that Ronnie Spector looks fantastic for her age.
ReplyDeleteSame thought here, G. Terence, I like the perks of your day job.
ReplyDeleteCool about meeting Ronnie spector. Love her voice.
ReplyDeleteThe other side of having to work, and I have a day job, is you can use a lot of what you experience. I love Ronnie's voice, too. Cool that you got to hang meet her.
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