“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”    – George Orwell

Being an unpublished writer is working two full time jobs and only getting paid for one. Add to that a couple of the following things: being part of a writer’s workshop and/or a writing friendship with someone who you share your work with, and they share theirs. The value of this is immeasurable. Writing is solitary work and sometimes you need to have your work looked at by someone you trust. So now, you have two full time jobs and a part time job, and again, you’re only getting paid for the one. (If you are being paid for your writing on the side, more power to you.)

Throw in your query submissions for the book you spent the last several years writing, rewriting, writing again, and then revising another time. Assuming you’re going for the traditional publishing route, you have to find literary agents to query. You have to research what they are looking for, what they like and don’t like. You have to write query letters tailored to each specific literary agent. Write a synopsis then, which is a one to two page description of every major happening in your book. You have to distill all six-hundred pages into one or two.  

Once you’ve done the above, you have to deal with the rejections. They will come if you’re lucky. Every one of us will get some rejections, but many agents you query will never, ever respond to you. It’s like offering your hopes and dreams to one of those machines with all the stuffed animals packed in and you have to lift them out with some impotent claw device. No matter how many quarters you put in you’ll never get that fucking stuffed hippo. Querying is another job.

Okay, so what? Every writer who ever wrote a book has gone through this right? Yep. I am not special and neither are you. This is what we signed up for this is the writer life.

So now, you’re working basically three full time jobs as a writer (not including your current writing project / short stories / outlining / drafting / brainstorming and researching for your next one). Then add maintaining a social life and relationships with friends. If you’re a parent, add one job per child. I have no children, but I’ve seen them up close, I’ve seen what parents have to do, at least enough to have an idea that it’s crazy. How anyone can be a parent and also write is miraculous, kudos to you. If you are a single parent and you’re working and writing, you should get a medal and you should probably stop reading this because your house may be on fire.

Add to all this the fact that nowadays if you’re an author or an aspiring one, you need a social media presence. You need a webpage and/or a blog. Agents want you to be known already. You have to have followers and friends and people who might potentially buy your book if it gets published. Maintaining a social media account can be exhausting. You find things you agree with and things you don’t, you find things that you never imagined anyone would broadcast and yet there they are. That’s the way it works now, as I’m sure you know. As it turns out, Twitter and Instagram are the top two social media platforms for writers.

Oh, don’t forget to read. Read as often and as much as you can. That’s crucial. We have to keep an eye on the competition right?   

Also, we need to exercise. Go out in nature, run, jump, and play and do something to burn off those extra calories and keep from dying too young. We can’t survive on coffee alone.

Okay, now add some tough times or some pain, or a surgery recovery, a death in the family, a resurgence of childhood trauma or whatever else life might have in store for you. Anxiety, loneliness, and depression over the aforementioned rejections all come with the territory; the other stuff is extra. Speaking of trauma, if you are afflicted with an incurable loyalty to a perennially doomed sports franchise, that takes time too.

Now, if you live in America and you tune into the news and are concerned about what’s happening you have to carve out time for that as well. It can be challenging to keep from getting derailed by the maniacal orange crusted hobgoblin who goes around starting fires everywhere he can just to see what will happen. Keeping up with the Trumpster fire and not sinking into despair is another part time job. But, if you’re a fan of the lunacy, well, I guess keep writing your manifesto. But do us all a favor and show it to someone before you do anything. Maybe take it to a writer’s workshop and get some feedback. Writing is thinking and vice versa, and it doesn’t hurt from time to time to consider a little revision.

Writers, whether we know it or not, and whether or not we embrace it, are the voice of our time. Some of us will be heard and some of us will not. Our duty is to write our part in the long and winding scripture of humanity. Regardless of your genre, if you write articles for a local magazine or political commentary, fantasy, erotica, horror, or good old-fashioned fiction, we are all a part of this world and our voices should be heard, at least by someone.