Writers Need to Work First, Then Write

Keep in mind that Steinbeck, Hemingway and all the greats were inspired by horrible jobs. They either worked them themselves or knew many people who did.

I used to bail hay and fill silos, cut fruit and drive a forklift, and a bunch of what can be termed "menial" jobs. But I learned a lot about the human condition and it made me wright a lot more effectively.

The problem with young writers is that they do not want to experience anything first. Without experiences -- good or bad -- people simply will not have the personality contrasts and deep emotional roots required to sustain any kind of fictional story line, or in the case of non-fiction, a serious line of detailed, narrowly focused research.

That's why you get such powerful literature from, say, the Holocaust experience, or any kind of war, or a revolution that is tearing up a nation, or the American Civil War, civil rights, etc. People pushed beyond their ability to cope, and recovering from that turmoil.

In other words, it doesn't just come out of your ass. You have to work at it -- and work jobs you don't like for longer than you might want.

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