Financial security then is a great help as it keeps you from worrying. Worry destroys the ability to write. Ill health is bad in the ratio that it produces worry which attacks your subconscious and destroys your reserves. You can take sick days and get paid. The momentum of the organization takes up the slack of individuals.
Income is to a large extent severed from output.
Free-lance writers get paid absolutely zero if they do not produce. They stand no chance of paying the mortgage and feeding the kids if they have not ground out the pages to sell. If the ordinary American worker could know the free-lancer's fear when he faces his bills, if he could feel the sharply edged connection between output and being able to sleep at night, that worker would be a match for any Japanese or Korean. If you can't ask for the money, you have no business being in business. This page last updated 3 September 1999.