A Room of One's Own – and No Pesky Kids
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Well, I'm glad the famous ones have off-days, too. Susan Orlean (staff writer at The New Yorker, author of The Orchid Thief, Meryl Streep muse) has been tweeting this morning about how hard it is to be an at-home writer—especially if you're a woman and a mother. She first posted: "When I was pregnant people said, Yr job is so flexible—perfect w/a baby! Clearly, they knew nothing about writing and/or kids." This has touched off a conversation between Orlean and other Twitterers about women and writing, a favorite topic here at the XX Factor. Orlean and her readers are discussing whether women have different styles of focus than men do, the extent to which writing is different from other professions, and why there are no "queens of non-fiction."
I certainly sympathize with the difficulties of being an at-home writer—which is why I'm currently sitting in a drop-in freelancer's cubicle here at the Slate Group's swanky new West Village office. (Thanks Slate Group!) Part of me thinks that working from home might actually be easier with kids around, since my problem has always been how vast and echo-y my apartment seems to become whenever I have to shift from, say, television-watching into work mode. The emptiness of the apartment begins to reflect the emptiness of the page, both start freaking me out, and then I just go back to watching television.
Of course, you can't tactfully avoid kids with a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, the way you can tune out office-mates when you really need to concentrate. (At least, I'm guessing you can't?)
Work-at-home XX-ers, what are your coping mechanisms? And do you think it really is worse for women—and moms? And finally, what's your verdict on Twitter and writing: helpful social lifeline, or insidious procrastination tool?
Nina Shen Rastogi California native, theater and comics fan, Slate "Green Lantern" columnist
Comments
Fortunately, it is now easy
By: green123 | Tue, 09/22/2009 - 00:48
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When I was a teen I repainted
By: ather | Fri, 09/18/2009 - 20:32
When I was a teen I repainted my bedroom five times. To keep yourself from going mental and broke, set some ground rules before the arguing starts.
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Getting enough sleep is
By: s.keski | Fri, 09/18/2009 - 07:19
Getting enough sleep is crucial. Ten or 11 hours a night is not unusual for pregnant women. Try to arrange a catnap at work, either on a sofa or with your feet up on your desk.
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Being pregnant or a new
By: green123 | Tue, 09/15/2009 - 14:41
Being pregnant or a new mother does not prevent women from working and developing their career. Every year around 350,000 women continue to work during their pregnancy and of these 69% return to work soon after giving birth.
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She has been a staff writer
By: ather | Sun, 09/13/2009 - 08:38
She has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992, and has contributed articles to Vogue, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Outside.
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I guess they are doomed to
By: ather | Sun, 09/13/2009 - 08:34
I guess they are doomed to see their creative juices run dry, their children never to know the luxury of roaming down interconnecting corridors, and basically, their lives just aren't worth living, the poor dears....
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Teenagers are busy finding
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Susan Orlean
By: Davidsmith7 | Fri, 09/11/2009 - 18:14
Susan Orlean (born October 31, 1955) is an American journalist whose feature writing drolly but affectionately considers "softer" subjects than some of those covered by her colleagues. She has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992, and has contributed articles to Vogue, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Outside.
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