K. Marvin Bruce

Do you admit that you’re a writer?  If it’s in your job description I suppose you do, but for many of us being a writer presents us with a dilemma.  Do you admit to your boss that you’re hoping to get paid for what you do off the clock? I have a friend in the publishing industry whose employer has strict rules about such things.  Any “employment” that takes away from work time has to be declared in written form and sent to the office that investigates conflict of interest.  If you’re a writer who’s paid to do something else you can already see where I’m going with this. Inspiration doesn’t obey time-clocks.  In fact, it almost always makes a mockery of them.  When you’ve arrived at work and punched in (i.e., booted up your PC) does that story idea obediently bed down until 5 p.m.?  Of course not.  Even after you’ve dug into today’s business, it’s probably playing like muzak in the back corridors of your gray matter.  It sometim...

The mind of a writer is a restless place.  Trying my hardest, it’s difficult to shut it down.  I imagine other writers are the same.  Good writing, as I’ve heard, is clear thinking. On the other hand I have a Protestant work ethic that would make even Calvin blush.  If I’m given a task to do, I work assiduously until it is done.  Bosses often mistake this for efficiency. The problem is I’ve generally been employed below my ability level.  That’s not to say that there aren’t busy times at work—there are.  Some times I can’t finish what I need to, no matter how hard I work.  Other times, however, there’s nothing to do. Here’s my dilemma—should I write when there’s no work to do?  Well, that isn’t really a question.  Life is lamentably short; we have a few years and then we’re gone.  Too many of those years are claimed by work.  Much of it is busy-work. In my current employment I’ve been going weeks without ...