6 Phrases About Creative Work I Won’t Use Anymore

It’s “work,” not a “labor of love.”

Photo by Giulia May on Unsplash

Ever since I began working as a paid writer, when I was 16, I’ve heard writing and other creative work being described in ways that imply that it’s magical, somehow, that it’s beyond the capacity of everyday understanding. And while I won’t deny that there is something otherworldly about creative work, it also puts food on my table. It’s a real occupation, a valid vocation.

This near-universal desire to put creative work in the realm of the unicorn denigrates it, somehow, as if it’s something we should do only if we have the time and the privilege to do so, like if we have a powerful, wealthy patron behind us. Furthermore, it puts creative work out of the realm of those who also deserve to practice it and benefit from it. We’re also told it’s gauche to talk about money in the creative-arts worlds, so we don’t discuss it, which means new students to the creative arts don’t get to know how to make a living at it. (I’ve written about the importance of talking about money in the creative fields, and more recently, Jane Friedman did, too.)

The whole setup is infantilizing, and frankly, classist. And the way we talk about it perpetually adds to the problem. Here are six phrases I’ve used before that I’m going to do my best to stop using and the phrases…