Bosses are for suckers

James Braly, writing for Marketplace, CA has a really, really interesting take on freelancing vs. a traditional job. He says that, um...the risk lies not in freelancing, but in sticking to an office job. He has a point. Judge for yourself from the quotes or read the full article. It's worth a read.

"Risky?" asks the tycoon's wife, her disdainful eyes strangely incongruous above her lovely, placid cheeks. Evidently the plastic surgeon cut her facial muscles. "How is a job risky?"

"Someone with a boss," I say, "must answer to that one person, who could end their career, destroy their lifestyle, on a whim. Tomorrow."

Absolutely true. But it takes an extraordinary amount of self-confidence ( or stupidity ) to implement this logic.

On a side note, it's little references like the part about the placid cheeks and plastic surgeons that make an article interesting. Fact, figures and analysis is just fine. But what makes an article really interesting is the little herbs and spices the writer throws in.

A peek inside the pages of a writer's mind

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How I Write : The Secret Lives of Authors - Edited by Dan Crowe

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The Chicago Sun Times has a book review for 'How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors'.

"Most writers are infinitely nosy about how other writers go about their business -- how they summon their muse and descend into their inner sanctum. Transitioning from this world of barking dogs and blasting car stereos to a terrain of precise words and intriguing plots is perhaps the most difficult process of writing"

Navel gazing by any other name - Writers writing about how they write and how they seek inspiration is welcome. But looking at the kind of teddy bear they need to hold in order to write is stretching things a bit too far. I mean, well...

Lionel Shriver keeps a lamb curio she named "Clippity" on her bookcase to remind her "to eschew fancy-schmancy character names." Next to Clippity is a tiny, cloaked shaman statue that looks like a Ku Klux Klan member. This, she says, is for penitence -- "for every time I craft a crap sentence."

Maybe it would work better if she added a new cloaked shaman statue every time she churns out crap. An overflowing bookcase full of tiny cloaked shamans would be a magnificient inspiration to write beautiful prose.