The
thing I like best about having a day job in addition to my writing career is
the comfort of not having all my eggs in one basket. Here I’m thinking not so
much of monetary eggs, but of the kind of eggs that entitle one to brag or boast
or at the least to give oneself occasional comforting pats on the back. Because
I am both a children’s book author and a philosophy professor at the University
of Colorado at Boulder, I can pat myself on the back as either one, especially
if I’m slogging through discouragement in the other.
If I get
a snarky review of one of my books, I can tell myself, “Well, I’m a tenured
professor of philosophy, so there!” And if I get a snarky teaching evaluation
from one of my students, I can tell myself, “Well, I’m the author of almost
fifty children’s books, so there!” I always have an excuse at the ready for why
I’m not more famous or successful in either profession. For although I’ve had a
good double career, all things considered, I’m languishing in my academic
career at the Associate Professor level (where Full Professor is the best), and
in my writing career I’m definitely what’s known as a “midlist” author. No gold
seals of major awards emblazon the front covers of my books; no bestseller
lists carry my name. But, hey, for someone who has to balance the demands of
two careers (plus, for a couple of decades, the demands of a family) I’m doing
pretty darned well.
The
thing I like least about having a day job is wondering if I could be more successful as an author if
I devoted my whole heart to my writing. Would
I win the Newbery then? Would my
books be read by millions of children? I’ve written a heap of books while
writing just an hour a day, so quantity hasn’t been a problem for me with a
part-time writing schedule. But would I write better books if I had lovely meadow-like expanses of time
stretching before me each day? I don’t know. I certainly don’t think I’ve ever
cut any corners on a book, ever dashed something off just to get it done under
a tight time constraint. My books have always been as good as I could possibly
make them. But would I be able to make them better if I had more time to dream
and “moodle” (as Brenda Ueland calls it in If
You Want to Write)? Perhaps.
Yet, looking
at the lives of my friends who write full time, I have to say that most of them
are not luxuriating in lovely meadow-like days. With pressures to earn the
money that my day job provides me, they spend much of their time at school
visits, self-promotion, and other tasks of the writing life that are decidedly
not dreaming or moodling, not to mention writing. Still, those activities –
time spent with children, teachers, and librarians, time spent networking with
other writers – might help me to grow as a writer. Plus, they can be fun
activities in their own right.
So . . .
if I thought I could write not more books but better books by quitting my day
job, I’d be terribly tempted. But what if I gave my writing my all, and I was
still a cheerful, striving midlist author and not the Next Great Thing? Without
even a self-congratulatory excuse to make myself feel better?
I’d give
up having eggs in two baskets if I could have better, fresher, altogether more
gorgeous eggs in my writing basket. But would I? I know the only way to find
out is to try it and see. Maybe, one of these days, I will.
Claudia Mills is the author of over 50 books for young readers, including picture books (Ziggy’s Blue-Ribbon Day), easy readers (the ten books of the Gus and Grandpa series), chapter books (Fractions = Trouble!, Being Teddy Roosevelt, How Oliver Olson Changed the World), and middle-grade novels (The Totally Made-Up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish, One Square Inch). Recently, How Oliver Olson Changed the World was named an ALA Notable Book of the Year, as well as a Blue Ribbon book by the Bulletin from the Center for Children’s Books and finalist for a Cybil Award. Claudia, who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University, also has a full-time position as a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and has published many scholarly articles on ethical and philosophical themes in children’s literature. Visit her website and her blog.
Claudia Mills is the author of over 50 books for young readers, including picture books (Ziggy’s Blue-Ribbon Day), easy readers (the ten books of the Gus and Grandpa series), chapter books (Fractions = Trouble!, Being Teddy Roosevelt, How Oliver Olson Changed the World), and middle-grade novels (The Totally Made-Up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish, One Square Inch). Recently, How Oliver Olson Changed the World was named an ALA Notable Book of the Year, as well as a Blue Ribbon book by the Bulletin from the Center for Children’s Books and finalist for a Cybil Award. Claudia, who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University, also has a full-time position as a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and has published many scholarly articles on ethical and philosophical themes in children’s literature. Visit her website and her blog.
I've thought about you for sometime this week. I couldn't help but notice that you talk more of writing full time rather than teaching full time. It made me wonder if writing isn't something you'd like to do more.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'd be happy if my writing were as 'mid-list' as my teaching is right now:)