Q&A

Dear Don: I’m not sure which career I should pursue: writing or teaching. What are the differences between those careers? Respectfully, Torn in Trenton

Dear Torn: I am the right guy to ask. It’s all fresh in my mind. BTW, it’s pronounced Treh-un, not Trenton.

Dear Don: Thanks … but I already have a dialogue coach.

Dear Torn: Is he from Treh-un?

Dear Don: No, he’s from Newark. Uh, I mean Nawrk.

Dear Torn: To answer your question about a career in writing versus one in teaching, I can tell you honestly that, as a college professor, I have received steady advancement and pay increases, respect and appreciation from peers/bosses and a sense of accomplishment; oh, and more joy.

Dear Don: --

By this time, Torn in Treh-un was sitting next to me at the 3Monkeys. He started texting me, which is odd because I don’t send or receive text messages.

“Knock off the ‘Dear Don’ stuff,” I told him. “I’m one stool over.”

“OK,” Torn in Treh-un said. “But writing screenplays on spec; that’s got a bigger possible payday, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I said, “but I don’t need a fortune. Teaching pays decently. I can go to NFL games, the beach, Vegas and Saratoga. That’s enough.”

Torn-in-Treh-un asked, “What about the writing? The jockey story, the panda book ….”

I told him, “I can still write them. I’ll get my summers off, from Kentucky Derby Day (early May) to Travers Day (late August).”

“That’s four months.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“The summer is only two months; about eight weeks.”

“Well, add ‘em up, it’s more like 16 weeks.”

“How do you explain that?” he asked me.

“It’s like a ‘double-double’ espresso at Starbucks.”

“Oh! Now I get it,” he said, nodding.

To recap:

Teaching offers decent money and more-than-expected joy and respect, along with a sense of accomplishment and happiness. Those li’l things. Plus, as a teacher, you get time off to write, which is perfect for me, if you think about it.

On the other hand, and it’s always a good idea to weigh the good next to the bad (our family adage is, “How do you know you have it good unless you’ve had it bad?”) what has a screenwriting career offered me thus far?

It’s offered me, uh, none of the things that teaching has offered. Not one.

OK, one. I do feel a sense of accomplishment when I finish a major project (screenplay, novel or children’s book). If you stretch the meaning of “offer” then I guess you can also say that writing offers some hope. By hope, I mean writers hope they get multi-picture deals or get invited to appear on talk shows or guest-star on the TV show, “Vegas.” (I hear there is a ton of nudity behind the scenes on that show.)

For most of us, a sense of accomplishment is the only positive you can expect from a writing career. I learned recently that not everyone is going to like you. So what? I’m over it. But a writer has to walk around thinking, “No one may ever like me or my work.”

Before the computer age, I had a box of originals in my office. This box contained all of my first drafts slash good copies. My main goal in life was to fill up that box; to keep writing original material like screenplays, novels, magazine articles, etc. The box has never left my office. It’s a few feet away from me right now. If I want to read a book I wrote 25 years ago, I dig through the closet and open the box of dusty originals. We’re getting new carpets next week; maybe I’ll check out the contents of that box and see how well or not-so-well my work has aged.

-- Don Rutberg