Anonymous Corporate Client,

I think it’s interesting that you believe that writers who may listen to a movie, music, or television while they write are not attending to their writing. In an office, there is all sorts of background noise: phones ringing, people talking, office machines, and possibly background “atmosphere” music used by the employer. Office workers do not work in a silent bubble, and I think that’s the case for many freelance writers as well. Ms. Schwanke mentioned a movie in this post, but it could have just as easily have been music or television.

Whatever the source of the noise, I know of very few people, writers or otherwise, who work in absolute silence all of the time. Freelance writers just happen to create the particular noise that works for them. For me, that particular noise is CNN. There are times when I turn it off because I do need it to be quiet to focus on a specific part of an assignment. However, the background noise of CNN is as natural a part of my day as an office worker taking a coffee break, eating lunch, or talking to a co-worker. I highly doubt that the workers in Anonymous Corporate Client’s office work eight hours straight without any sort of human interaction. If a worker wants to waste time, that can be accomplished in a public office just as it can be done in a remote location. Conversely, a person who works remotely can be just as productive as an office worker if he or she wants to be. Please don’t assume that the use of a movie as background noise for a writer makes that person unprofessional unless that writer gives you a tangible sub-par product that supports that statement.

If you writers tackle your job so unprofessionally as to not give your writing your full, undivided attention, then you have no right to call yourselves professional.

If you consider your writing a career, then you must act professionally with your writing assignments, otherwise you are nothing more than someone who writes for a hobby and will be treated as such by the corporate world.

I have found blogging to be extremely helpful in keeping me somewhat connected to other writers.

Email helps, and so do frequent meetups with other writers.

It is certainly a lot about balance.
It’s a lifetime effort!

Great topic. Great post!

truly,

Sylvia C.