Working as a Writer

December 26, 2012

“I enjoyed work, I really did. I began to realise how simple life could be if one had a regular routine to follow and fixed hours and a fixed salary and very little original thinking to do. The life of a writer is absolute hell compared with the life of a business man. The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn’t go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him. If his is a writer of fiction he lives in a world of fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not. Two hours of writing fiction leaves this particular writer absolutely drained. For those two hours he has been miles away, he has been somewhere else, in a different place with totally different people, and the effort of swimming back into normal surroundings is very great. It is almost a shock. The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. … A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.” – Roald Dahl

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2 Responses to Working as a Writer

Jacqui Murray on December 27, 2012 at

I agree with everything except the conclusion. Writing values thinking. Some many jobs don’t want that anymore. All those rules and judgmental people! Not as a writer. I am my own judge and jury.
Laura on January 1, 2013 at

I’ve had jobs (been fired from one) where thinking for yourself and offering ideas was very much not encouraged. It makes the job miserable and takes away all hope of any change for the better. Writing is riskier but, at least we do have input in decisions and changes and the overall work. The trick is finding that balance between writing for yourself, writing for sales and writing what you think your readers want. It’s not easy to stand your ground and write for yourself – but it seems to work out better than when we cave to demand.