Pennsylvania Magazine paid me for my first article 14 years ago and I’ve been writing ever since. But I haven’t just been writing. Some of the jobs I’ve held over the years have been bookkeeper, substitute teacher, toy salesperson, and waitress. They were always my safety net. My paycheck every other week to convince my family that I had a real job.
There was a time when those jobs put groceries on the table but I’ve finally reached the point where they’re making me earn less. If I took the time I spend at my regular job and spent it on writing, odds are my bank account would be fatter at the end of the month. So I’m taking the plunge. I’m phasing out my “real” job. For the first time I’ll have to rely totally on my writing without any safety net to carry me through the lean times.
If you want true confessions I have a semi-safety net: a few regular writing jobs that give me a regular paycheck. But a regular job in the writing world is much more nebulous than a regular job in the corporate world. It could disappear at any time. And benefits-- what benefits?
Why now? I suppose I finally believe in myself and my writing. I’ve actually been fighting giving up my regular job for months now. Yes, I’ve been hanging on to a job out of…fear I suppose. It’s been my husband pushing for me to give it up. I’m sure part of the reasons he’s pushing me to take make the break are self-serving. The job makes me very grumpy(except the day I get my paycheck) and whatever free time I have gets eaten up by writing jobs. So he only sees good coming out if this—a less grumpy wife who actually has some free time to spend with him(or alternately to clean the house). Practically a dream world to him. I’ve tried to point out that I’ll be just as grumpy with more and more deadlines looming but he remains unconvinced…
How about you? Do you believe in yourself? How do you show it?
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Jodi M. Webb |
| About the author: |
| Jodi has been leading the crazy life of a writer for over a decade--along the way she's had a 6 foot tall ostrich try to eat her camera bag, rode in a medieval cart built by high school students, and held a super-sized gold chain recovered from a shipwreck. Unfortunately the gold chain wouldn't fit in her camera bag or she'd be writing to you from a villa in Italy--not Pennsylvania. When not writing she spends her time reading mysteries and World War II histories and baking cookies.
She's also working on her first book, a mystery that reaches back into World War II for a motive. |
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