From the E-Mailbag…

From Craig W. comes this question which I've received before in various forms but which I don't think I've ever really answered…

You say you've been a freelance writer since 1969. I don't really understand how someone can make a living that way. As I understand that, it means you write things and sell them to different customers but you don't really have an ongoing job. Is this by choice? Wouldn't you rather have a staff job at D.C. Comics or at a studio or someplace like that? I've been working for my present employer for twelve years now. Before that, I had little temporary jobs like working at Arby's or a summer I spent handing the stock room at a drugstore. I knew those were temp jobs and was happy when they went away and I got my permanent one. I can plan my life around that because I know what my income will be and when I'll be getting vacation time. Can you have any stability in your life when you don't know what your income will be six months from now?

I'm going to answer Craig in two different ways — the way I would have responded to him if he'd asked me this in 1983 and the way I'd answer it now. First, let's go back to 1983, Mr. Peabody…

Craig, I chose to work in creative fields…mainly comic books or television. These are fields that never have much stability and to get into them and expect stability is like becoming a beekeeper and assuming you'll never get stung. I have actually never found jobs like a staff position at D.C. Comics to be very stable — there have been times the position had the life expectancy of a fruit fly — and when you're in such a gig, you're usually either contractually or effectively exclusive to that job and that firm. When I freelance, I usually work for several companies in several areas. I have personal and creative reasons for not wanting to get locked into doing one thing for one employer…and times when I just plain don't want to commute to an office each day. But I've also found that for financial reasons, it's usually wise of me to diversify and to not put all my eggs into one of those straw things that people put eggs in.

Okay, that was how I'd have answered in 1983. Here's my 2013 reply…

Craig, the way the economy has been going the last ten or so years, we're all turning into freelancers and temp workers. Some of us just don't know it. I know very few people who currently work a job with any reasonable confidence of being in it three years from now. The ones who do usually have some sort of ownership position there so it's kind of like if the business is there in three years, they'll be there with it. Maybe it's not as acute in fields other than the ones in which I labor…but, you know, I used to have friends who had staff jobs at Disney that didn't pay particularly well. They'd say, "Yeah, the money may suck but at least I know with Disney, I'll still be working here in twenty years." Not one of those people is still with Disney and most of them didn't make twenty years. We're in a world where companies change ownership (or management teams) rapidly…or the marketplace changes due to technological innovations so the job descriptions there keep changing.

I suppose it would be nice to be able to look ahead and know what I'll be doing and what I'll be making next year but I'm used to not knowing. I'm also spending a lot of time holding the hands of friends who are not used to it. It's kinda like C.P.R. You may never need to use it but you oughta learn it…just in case.