Dale Herbest wrote to ask…
How do you respond to career critics? And I'm not just talking about people who critique the work you do (i.e., a "The Garfield Show isn't funny" kind of thing). I'm talking about people who say to you that what you do for a living is not "real work" and not at all "useful?" I'm sure at least once, someone has come up to you and after you mention what you do for a living, they're like "Oh, writing's not a real job" or "Acting isn't a real job" and "Directing isn't a real job." I personally don't agree with this but what do you think?
I think no one's ever said that to me…at least I can't recall an instance. What I can recall are a few folks who, in a more baffled tone, tossed out the view that a writing job wasn't a "real job" because it was not permanent and maybe because I've done most of them from home. They think a "real job" is something where you go into a building, work 9 AM to 5 PM five days a week with holidays and scheduled vacation time off and then you get a guaranteed paycheck on Friday and the amount is no surprise.
Oh — and also, you stay at that company for years and years and years until you retire. That's sometimes part of it.
As someone who's been basically a freelancer for a few months shy of 48 years, I've heard that a few times but it's usually not a put-down. It's more like, "Well, uh, when are you going to stop screwing around and get something permanent?" 48 years of pretty continuous work sounds darn close to permanent to me but there have been times when I never knew quite what I'd be doing in six months.
But no one's ever said what I did was not "useful." I mean, it obviously isn't but you can say that about a lot of professions…probably everything in the field of entertainment. How necessary are all those Kardashians?
