Is it enough?

I’ve always written, as a hobby, as a way to relive boredom, as a way to stay sane. I’d never taken it very seriously, it was just this thing I did. Writers, those people who got paid to write, were other people. It never crossed my mind that I could do this professionally.

I was going to be a lawyer. My family is full of lawyers. They make very good money, they have very nice houses, their days bill out in an endless progression of six-minute increments. This is where I was headed, working towards a safe, respectable career that would bring me a safe, respectable lifestyle with a safe, respectable family.

Writing for yourself is great if you can do it. I can’t. I need feedback from people, I need to know people are reading my work or I lose interest. Two years ago I started posting some of what I had written on the Internet. I got lucky and I caught the attention of some very smart, very motivated people.

“I’m starting a company” he said “I want you onboard.”

The writing game can be funny. I write well which landed me a job as an editor. I do development. I do public relations, I plan events. I do everything, in fact, but write.

I fell into this, I understand on every level how lucky I am. I work with great authors who I respect and, just between you and me, who I’m a little intimidated by. I work for a young, dynamic company that I believe in, but is it enough?

I never believed in being a lawyer. Law is, as a friend put it, “the last refuge for the smart but uncreative”. Law school was an easy plan to walk away from.

I love the people I work with and I love the company I work for. But using my writing as a way into a glorious life as an editor was never what I intended. Once I put away my plans for law school something happened. I put away my plans to settle. Now I wake up at six am every morning to write for an hour before my day starts. Somewhere along the way I started to think I could be a writer.

I hope to document the mistakes I’ve made here as well as the few things I’ve done right. The last two years have shown me that life is too long to do something you don’t believe in and yet, very few people take a shot at what they’re passionate about. I hope my experience can, in some small way, help others out. Or maybe it will just be good for a laugh, we’ll see.

To Blog or Not to Blog

That is the question.

The market has been flooded with memoirs—both fiction and non-fiction from everyone the likes of Nicole Richie to the infamous James Frey. It's the new way of bolstering your ego; talking about oneself with the belief that people will be interested, even intrigued by the prattle of one's endeavors. Are people interested? If you are here then apparently so.

As a recent UCLA graduate and intern at a very prestigious and if I dare-say controversial publishing imprint I find myself smack-dab in the middle of the editorial job hunt in Los Angeles. I spend most days religiously searching job sites such as ed2010, mediabistro, journalism jobs, and craigslist in between trips to the copy room and staring at my computer screen.

I am extremely lucky to have developed an impressive resume with Saturday Night Magazine, LOGO MTV, and Reganbooks but no matter how many times I send out my resume, and no matter how excited I get about the hopes of a potential interview, I seem to wait in vain.

And what do you do when that fateful day comes along—an email pops in your inbox, a missed call from a mysterious 213 or 323 number appears in your phone log. You actually get to the interview and they ask you, "Why do you think you are right for this job?"

"I'm a writer, passionate about culture/politics/music/movies/the arts. I'm hardworking, dedicated—sure I may be young, maybe I don't have the experience you were looking for in your potential candidate, but I will work hard. I will prove myself."

Sure sister, good luck.

But no matter how hard I fall I sojourn on. It's hard to call yourself a writer in Los Angeles. Everyone is a writer/actor/artist in a city where the angels seem to have been on vacation since Hollywood land set up shop in the early 20th century.

I presume to call myself a "writer" because writing is what I am passionate about. I dream that someday I'll write something that I really care about, something that affects people. I want the people to learn how to correctly pronounce my name [krees/ˈɛrɪn/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation-er-in] [kuh-nair-ee] while they are praising or cursing me. Because something I said or wrote matters.

I am no author, I am no magazine editor. I have but few clips to my name but I wake up every morning at 7:30am and drag myself to work because I have ambitions, and I know that I am going have to work hard to have a chance to do something great.

I hope that something I say and the mistakes I make will help those of you out there with the same dream. Ask questions, seek advice and write. Write when you're tired or depressed or harder still write when you feel like you have nothing to say. Just keep writing, keep trying. There is no crime worse then settling for a job or a life that does not fulfill your passions. Your life is too important to deprive the world of your voice, and to short to deprive yourself of happiness.

Fight the fight, live the dream, struggle and persevere.

Until next time.

Welcome to Mucho Trabajo-Poquito Dinero

For the spanish illiterate out there this new blog "Much work-Little money" is meant to bring together young pre-professionals in the writing/editing/creative world of publishing.

I along with several other guest bloggers will be discussing what it's like to try and get an editorial/magazine/book publishing job in Los Angeles and New York.

We will document crazy bosses, interview processes, resume building, job resources- opinons and advice and cultural/artsy events in New York and LA.

Tune in for constant updates!

Sincerely

Mucho Trabajo-Poquito Dinero!