Storytellersunplugged

By Jeff Mariotte

The Morton Syndrome

“When it rains it pours.” That’s what it says on the side of the Morton Salt can in my pantry, but it could as easily describe the summer monsoon rains or the way work can show up unexpectedly, all at once—or the alternative, which is worse.

I’m a full-time writer, which is another way of saying that my work schedule—and my income—can fluctuate wildly. Unless you’re a regular on the bestseller lists or have a spouse with a steady income, you’re probably the same way. I work all the time, either on original novels or work-for-hire novels, and occasionally on short stories or comics. But the WFH stuff usually comes with short deadlines attached—and up-front money—so there are times that original work has to be pushed aside to take on a tie-in project.

Just after the first of the year, I achieved a new record, for me. I’ve previously accepted a couple of three-book deals, but never before have I been approached on the same day by three different editors—two offering WFH book contracts and one soliciting a short story for a science fiction anthology. I accepted all three. It’ll mean a lot of work in a hurry, because the two novels are due on March 26 and May 1. And it means putting off the original that I started in November.

I took the jobs, because an extended period last year had been, for a variety of reasons beyond my control, short of contracted work. I wrote and sold original supernatural thriller Missing White Girl during that period, but even so, a dry stretch like that is hard to cope with financially. This, folks, is why they tell writers to keep their day jobs. It’s hard to put the food on the family, in our president’s terminology, when there’s no bread in the bank.

To make matters more complicated, as I launched into these two new projects, I also had a flash flood of page proofs that needed to be checked—for two novels and a short story. The long book I was reading (Lisey’s Story, by Stephen King—beautiful, so far) has been set aside while I work on the proofs and the research required for the new novels. Because both WFH projects are novels based on TV shows, I have a ton of DVDs to watch, in addition to the regular sorts of research that are required for any novel. In the middle of all this I also had to do the paperwork and proofreading associated with having a short story, “Walkaway,” accepted by the Amazon Shorts program, and study contracts for a couple of original graphic novels.

Then there are appearances, travel, conventions, promotion, networking…all of these will be happening between now and those two deadlines, and I’ll have to fit them in without jeopardizing the work itself. And my tenuous grasp on sanity.

What it comes down to is management. Writing is an art but it’s also a business, and you have to manage your time and your finances. If you can’t manage those things, then maybe you’re better off as a part-time writer, with your daily life controlled by a “legitimate” job. In some ways it’s harder because it means squeezing your writing into smaller chunks of time. But there’s a lot to be said for having a regular income.

Having known many hundreds of writers over the past couple of decades, I’m very aware that some have been phenomenally successful, while others have been completely unable to keep their careers going and have had to take other jobs. Becoming a full-time writer is, like any sort of entrepreneurial enterprise, a risky proposition, and not everyone makes it.

In the end, you—and the market forces that dictate your success as a writer—will have to make the decision for yourself. I don’t regret my decision (very often), even though it causes hardship from time to time. And I consider myself very fortunate indeed to remain in demand as a tie-in writer, as well as being able to sell my original work. It’s the best of both worlds.

I started by talking about salt—but if you manage your career well and you have the talent, you can also afford to treat yourself to dinner at Morton’s (the excellent steak house, not the salt mines) once in a while. That’s definitely a bonus in my book.