Perks of Being a Writer: The Things I Can Call "Work"

If you're a writer, you've probably heard the advice, "Don't quit your day job." It's good advice; most writers aren't going to earn enough money from the writing career to make it their only source of income.

I still have to work, but summer is a slow time for the day job. So it's not a paycheck-friendly time, but the upside is I have plenty of time to write. And one of the perks of being a writer is that there are so many things we can label "Work" that other people can't.

Why yes, I am busy doing research

Watching TV
The midgrade novel I'm working on is about a girl whose parents are cryptozoologists. Last Thursday there was a MonsterQuest marathon on The History Channel, and I took notes while watching. That is a productive day of research, people. And the young adult novel I'm revising, Reasons For Leaving, has a subplot about a Ponzi scheme, so the same goes for Bernie Madoff documentaries. For CHAINED it was anything about elephants.

Reading

How will I ever get all this work done?

To be a great writer, you have to read a lot. So now when I read, I'm not just enjoying a good book, I'm perfecting my craft. Each book is like a mini-workshop.

Eavesdropping
I'm not being nosy, I'm studying realistic dialogue.
Any place you visit is a source for potential new characters or story ideas. Even if you're somewhere you don't want to be, you might pick up a bit of a conversation or get an idea for a plot thread or character trait that can will find its way into a book.

Surfing the Internet
I can't remember how we all got by before the Internet. That was awful, wasn't it, all of us sitting around waiting for Google to show up? Now, spend one minute searching for whatever you're interested in, and you have more information than you know what to do with. And there are countless resources for writers out there, so we always have something to read about how to be a better writer.

Watching movies
Similar to the "reading" perk: novelists can learn a lot about writing from screenwriters, so when we watch movies we're also learning about good storytelling. I'm pretty sure this means that popcorn is tax-deductible.

Thinking
No, I'm not staring into space, I'm plotting.

There are probably more we could add to the list--what are your favorite work-that-doesn't-look-like-work activities? I'll take a break from looking out the window to read your comments.

You're Not From Around Here, Are You?

Being from Texas means you sometimes have to explain things other people don't understand.

Like that armadillos are ususally seen like this:

...because this is how they react when they're frightened. Like by an oncoming car, for example:

Some things here don't need much explanation because they're found in other southern states too, like rabid high school football fans or chicken-fried steak. But I haven't met anyone outside of Texas who understands what homecoming mums are.

They're hard to describe, really. Yes, they're like giant corsages, but they're much more than that. They have lots of...stuff on them. Imagine rolling around in glue before pillaging a craft store. That's sort of what you look like wearing a mum. If it's a good one, I mean.

The young adult novel, REASONS FOR LEAVING, I've been working on takes place in a suburb of Houston, during most of a school year. I realized after writing the first draft that I'd said nothing about homecoming. That wouldn't do. I had to have homecoming. And homecoming means mums. Because they are hard to describe to those who haven't seen them, I emailed my agent with some pictures from my daughter's homecoming to let her know, "Here's what I'm talking about."

If you look closely, you can see that there are chrysanthemums in those arrangements somewhere. The girls wear these to school on Friday and to the homecoming game on Friday night. Attaching one of these with a corsage pin would just tear your shirt right off of you, so they're worn with ribbon harnesses like giant necklaces. But the girls aren't the only ones lugging around steroid-laced flower arrangements:

Yep, those are guys. They often use ribbon harnesses too--their mums are attached to garters they wear around their arms, but the arrangements have become so elaborate they'd slip off from the weight of them, landing on the floor in a heap of ribbons, plastic footballs, and teddy bears adorned with blinking lights. And no one wants to see that.

So, now you know what mums are! The challenge in the story will be describing them in a way that will be clear to readers unfamiliar with the tradition, without going on so much that the description seems unnatural or boring.

Any of you have something like that in a manuscript you've written--something that's perfectly clear to you, but that people outside of your state or area just don't get? How did you describe it so it seemed like a natural part of your story, and not like info dump stuck in there for the benefit of the reader?

There's deep-fried Mountain Dew in the novel too, but of course that makes perfect sense.