A Writer, the Traffic and a Payday Loan – a poor mixture

I make a living out of writing

In my profession, I need to use a Payday Loan now and then. My name is not John Grisham, David Baldacci or any other writer of popular fiction that you fall over when you walk into a bookstore. I sit alone in a semi-dark study at home, banging out articles on my computer. I have 3 computers, the old one which is creaky and doesn’t always behave and on which my wife plays bridge. I also have a laptop which I use when I’m ‘on the road’ or baby sitting or just lazing in the park. Most of my masterpieces are written on Old Faithful who sits on the desk in my study.

You’re a what???

The normal response from anyone who asks what I do for a living is, “You’re a what???” This is usually followed by, “But what do you do to make money?” I’m sure that my father would say, “Why can’t you go out and find a real job like everyone else?”

I agree, it’ a strange way to make money, but it does, sometimes not enough and other times easily, depending on many factors.

The traffic factor

Over the past few weeks I have run into the worst possible thing that can happen to a writer – traffic. I get paid in various ways – per word, per page, per article or per hour. I would choose ‘per word’ every time if I had the choice. In the end, it’s all a matter of time and a good spell-checker. Last week I was called out to report on a conference – nice job, I could use more of these – and it took me 2 hours to make the 20 minute trip, a waste of an hour and a half writing time.

The same thing happened again yesterday and again this morning. Hours down the drain, gone and irretrievable. How’s a guy supposed to deal with this?

A Payday Loan to kick off the helicopter fund?

I suppose the successful fiction writers buy their own helicopters, but that’s after they sell the movie rights to Hollywood. A helicopter, wow! That would help in getting to the job quickly. Should I take out a Payday Loan and start my helicopter fund?  Probably not.

A day in the life…

It goes like this. Depending on what time I went to bed, I stumble out somewhere between 8 and 9 in the morning and do an electric shave job while I check my e-mail. Don’t laugh – I live in the internet and emailing is almost my only means of communication. Perhaps an order for a writing job floated in during the night hours. My writing is global and not confined to any one time zone.

Then it’s a shower and breakfast, a look at the newspaper and off to the study, hopefully to work. The afternoons are quiet; maybe a rest or a walk and things pick up again at about 5 in the afternoon and go on until I run out of steam or ideas.

Another computer

Microsoft is busy launching a new version of windows. This may mean I will have to upgrade computers in order to remain compatible with all my clients and their computers. If that’s the case, I will require a Payday Loan to buy a new computer for the new software. Hopefully I can avoid wasting time sitting in traffic, instead sitting at my new computer generating income.