{"id":100,"date":"2016-07-14T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/?p=100"},"modified":"2019-02-10T13:12:56","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T18:12:56","slug":"writer-vs-designer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/14\/writer-vs-designer\/","title":{"rendered":"Writer vs. Designer"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was at a party, a friend’s wedding, and a friend’s husband who I haven’t seen for a while and I were chatting, and of course the question was asked: how was work going? Because work is always going, in some form or another; either well or poorly or as a search-for. A lot of people, judging from articles on the internet, hate “how’s work going” as a conversation starter, and I tend to avoid it myself, but only because I am terrible at small talk and the phrase “what’s keeping you interested\u00a0these days” accomplishes the same aim but is far more open-ended and allows people to talk about what is\u00a0actually<\/em> interesting to them, in a way that work is not.<\/p>\n

But it was me that was on the receiving end of “how’s work going these days” and it caused a mild stampede in my brain.\u00a0Is he asking how the writing is going or the graphic design? Does he know that I am trying to write full-time? \u00a0I haven’t sold anything but I do make the odd bits of money designing–which one counts?\u00a0<\/em>Time ticked down and I panicked and talked about design work, because I didn’t want to open that can of worms at the party. I felt badly, afterward, as if I had lied through my teeth.<\/p>\n

That would make the decision “what do I call myself these days” easier, but it isn’t. There is an unspoken rule, I have found, that defines the answers of “how is work going”: it only counts activities that make money. You’ll notice this yourself with people who skirt around the question. The hedging. The sidling, if the person in question is not full-time employed. I do it myself, because my writing doesn’t pay any bills yet, and for that fact I have (wince) once described myself as an intern. Because I work<\/em>. I work very hard. But nothing monetary has come of it, yet, which makes me feel like apologizing whenever I describe it as my job. As though I am faking.<\/p>\n

Once or twice I over the past year I tried introducing\u00a0myself as an author\/writer\/novelist but each time I had to skitter backwards in defense because the questioner would follow-up with something along the lines of “Where can I buy your books?”. Then I have to sheepishly explain: nowhere.<\/p>\n

I can’t stand the crestfallen expression on their faces.<\/p>\n

\n

So I decided I won’t introduce myself as a novelist until I have something sold. Perhaps that’s unfairly capitalist of me, but it’s the line that I’ve unconsciously drawn for myself. In the meantime, I suppose, I’ll keep calling myself a graphic designer, with a heavy sigh and an asterisk of disclaimer. As a designer, at least, I can just say I am “between projects” which is easier to understand\u00a0at parties. But when the odd soul does ask “what’s keeping you busy\/interested these days” I’ll give them the longer version.<\/p>\n

Both sides are true. One is just more truer than the other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“How’s work going these days?” causes a mild stampede in my brain. Are they asking how the writing is going or the graphic design? Do they know that I am trying to write full-time?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[104,88],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-overthinking","tag-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriafeistner.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}