Hourly Work

There is controversy in my field over whether or not we should work by the hour. I just recently started doing that myself, and I have to admit that I have problems with it.

Admittedly, part of the problem is that I don't like to keep track. I like to work. I like, given that I'm working, to have someone send me some money now and then. I don't really like having to bother too much over the connection between the two things. If I have an inspiration for one project while I'm in the middle of another, I like being able to switch right over.

I recognize that I'm talking as though I were an artist in an atelier, with a wealthy patron who dropped in occasionally with ducats. I recognize also how unlikely it is that I will acquire such a patron. And I know that the lives of such artists were less comfortable than mine, so I guess I can get over this problem.

There remains the fact that I don't like to hurry over my writing. I'm fast, actually, and can operate with very short turnaround time, but that's not the same as hurrying.

Sometimes I like to contemplate a topic for a while. Sometimes it's an interesting subject. For example, right now I'm working on a piece on hookworm eradication for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.

Hookworm eradication may not be your cup of tea (oh, that sounds disgusting), but it's really quite a fascinating subject in Arkansas history. It's one that I happen to know a lot about. The fee offered for this piece tells me that I ought to sit right down with my current research files and knock it out in half an hour. In fact, since the deadline is farther out in the future than anything else I'm working on, I intend to mosey on over to the library and see what there is in print. I plan to think about this gently over the next few weeks and consider all the possible ways to present it, and polish it up nicely before I send it in.

I can do that because it's not by the hour.

After all, I can't expect a client to pay me for an extra few hours' research just because I find the topic interesting. I can't even expect a client to pay for me to set the piece aside for a few days and then look back at it to make sure that the language is as tasty as I can make it.

When I'm paid by the piece, I can decide for myself how much time I care to devote to the particular item. I don't have to consider the budget, just my personal fondness for the topic -- or, let's face it, for the client.

I finesse the question by doing a lot of the composition in my head,while taking nice long walks through the woods. That's clearly for my own pleasure, and I don't feel in the least unbusinesslike when I leave that out of the client's total.

Besides, you know what happens when you cast your bread upon the waters...