When I started this blog waaaaaaaay back in 2016 I’d just gotten out of grad school, where my focus had been developing myself as a writer and honing my craft. Back then, I’d been getting a lot of advice on how to be a writer: Write every day, write in the morning when you’re fresh, research agents who’ll want to read your work, find critique partners, revise multiple drafts, and so on.
If you were to follow all of this advice to the letter and make writing the focus of your life, it would certainly add up to more than a full-time 40-hour-a-week job—though no one ever came right out and said it like that.
My problem was that while aspiring writers were ostensibly developing their crafts over this 40-hour-a-week period, how were they supposed to be earning money? Were they supposed to be independently wealthy, so they didn’t have to work? Were they supposed to be working a part-time job? Or were they not actually supposed to be devoting that much time to their craft, and carving out time on evenings and weekends instead? (And if they did it during their evenings and weekends, how would they find the time for family and friend relationships???)
Most people never quite had a straight answer for these questions, which is why I decided to answer them myself with But I Also Have a Day Job.
I recently read Stephen King’s memoir/craft book On Writing, which is half the story of how he became a writer from childhood until his mature years, and half insight into his own writing process from the initial idea to finished manuscript. The book is an EXCELLENT read and I highly recommend it, though today I’d like to reflect on specifically how King does—and doesn’t—mention how writers keep their bills paid.
Stephen King Lived the Day Job Life When He Was a Young Writer
As I mentioned, the first part of On Writing (“C.V.”) covers King’s early experiences as a writer, scribbling out stories, working on the school newspaper, and the time he illegally sold his own printed version of the movie The Pit and the Pendulum. It’s a tight, fast-moving section of barely a hundred pages, and it covers only those aspects of his life that apply to writing.
In reading “C.V.,” though, I found myself most drawn to King’s years just out of college, when he was newly married with two kids and working in an industrial laundry washing filthy restaurant tablecloths and blood-stained hospital sheets while his wife worked second shift at Dunkin’ Donuts. They lived in less-than-glamorous neighborhoods and had frequent car problems, with never enough money for anything. It was hardly a glamorous life, but he led it because he couldn’t find a teaching job with his education degree.
During this time, King writes about writing after work, and on his lunch hour. He doesn’t say how much he wrote during this period, but he does mention when he wrote, which I’m sure readers will find useful and informative.
In contrast, King later gets a job teaching high-school English, where he earns $6,400 a year, which even in 1970s money wasn’t very much. Between dealing with unruly students, holding after-school conferences, and grading papers at home, when he came home on Friday he felt “as if I’d spent the week with jumper cables clamped to my brain.” He talks about not getting much done during this period, about writing being hard, and about losing hope.
Again, I found this section immensely helpful because of its sincerity: King talks about being able to write when he was working in the laundry, and not being able to write when he was working as a teacher, along with why. He never comes right out and says “Don’t become an English teacher if you want to write!” but as far as experiences that young writers can learn from, King’s are incredibly honest, useful, and poignant.
How Does Stephen King Talk About Writers Paying Bills Today?
Part of what makes On Writing so interesting is that the first half covers King’s own experiences in a way that suggests aspiring writers today can learn from his life and process, while the second half gives more direct, “This is how I do the writing” kind of advice.
While most of King’s advice covers his own process, he also gives more general tips, or delves into the challenges faced by young writers today (or, in 1999 when he was writing). Here, interestingly, is where King is never quite able to tackle the bill-paying question with as much directness, as we see in this particular passage:
There are thousands of talented writers at work in America, and only a few of them (I think the number might be as low as five per cent) can support their families and themselves with their work. There’s some grant money available, but it’s never enough to go around. As for government subsidies for writers, perish the thought. Tobacco subsidies, sure. Research grants to study the mobility of unpreserved bull sperm, of course. Creative writing subsidies, never
The solution for a good many underpaid writers is to teach what they know to others. This can be a nice thing, and it’s nice when beginning writers have a chance to meet with and listen to veteran writers they may have long admired. It’s also great when writing classes lead to business contracts. I got my first agent, Maurice Crain, courtesy of my sophomore comp teacher, the noted regional short story writer Edwin M. Holmes.
…and that’s kind of all he says about it. Most writers can’t make a living off their work, grant money is few and far between, and teaching’s one path you can take, I guess. I really wish he’d reflected on this a bit more, including other possible options.
It’s important to note that this discussion comes in the middle of a passage on writing workshops and retreats, and what sort of usefulness they may or may not serve. Teaching writing to college students or adults who want to be there, of course, is far different than dealing with a bunch of high-school kids, and it’s clear that this is one way for the aspiring writer to pay their bills.
What’s missing from this statement, though, is some version of the sentence, “But there are other ways too, and here’s what they might look like.”
Again, in the passage I quoted, King is clear about how difficult it is to earn a living from writing alone, and is very clear about what kind of money isn’t available (grants and subsidies). He then pitches the option of teaching as “The solution for a good many writers,” but seems resigned to offer teaching as the main one, a kind of default.
Is earning your living as a writing teacher the best solution? Maybe, but King never directly says this—instead, he leaves it kind of unspoken as the only solution he points to, so that some readers might walk away thinking that it really is the only way for writers to earn a living when it’s possible that King just couldn’t come up with a better one.
I like to think, though, that King’s own experiences working in the laundry in the first “C.V.” portion of the book speaks to a different set of options—just not one that he’s directly able to recommend in the second portion. Why is this, exactly? Is it because he felt it was obvious? Was he afraid of saying it directly? Or did he make the reasonable assumption that readers like me would fill in the gaps for themselves and make the connection?
Furthermore, will other readers who aren’t as preoccupied with this topic as I am even make that connection???
Final Thoughts
While a lot of books about writing or creative careers don’t come within ten miles of the Bill-Paying question, it was both inspiring and refreshing to see King tackle this issue in his own craft book, even in an indirect manner that didn’t quite go all the way. I do think that the “Teaching is the only way for creative people to earn money!” trap is one that a lot of writers especially fall into, partly because this mantra is so prevalent, and partly because, like Stephen King himself in the passage I quoted above, they’re just not able to come up with any other ideas.
If anyone knows any books on writing or the creative life that address the almighty Bill-Paying Question, let me know in the comments. Or, if you’ve read Stephen King’s On Writing and liked something about it that I haven’t mentioned, also let me know in the comments. (As I said, it’s a great and informative read, even if you’re not a writer!)