a small rant, and a social experiment

[lagilman]

Y'know, I wasn't going to comment on John Scalzi's financial advice for writers, because everyone else has already weighed in (and I've made a few comments in those other places). But I see so much ink on the "don't live in NYC" bit that seems to me people are missing the point.

Yes, NYC is expensive. So's Los Angeles, Chicago, etc. A city is more expensive to live in than a small town, as a rule. I would never ever advise a would-be writer to move to a city simply to get a job (unless you're looking to work in-office at a specific magazine or newspaper, but that's a different question).

However. Some of us are country mice. We like being away from people, having lots and lots of elbow room, midnight quiet, and small town familarity. Some of us enjoy the suburbs, with the availability of malls, highways, and access-but-not-in a city life. And some of us are city mice, who think better with the white noise of traffic outside our windows, and the midnight access to a 24-hour diner on the corner.

If you're a country mouse living in the city, you'll be miserable even if you have the money to live there. If you're a city mouse in the country, saving hundreds of dollars a month won't make you work any better. Know yourself, as well as your budget. That's far better advice than saying "don't live somewhere expensive."

/rant.


On a more amusing front, a suggestion: have fun with social expectations on the 14th. Get a friend of the same gender and go out for a fancy Valentine's Day dinner.

(if your preference is for the same gender, live dangerously and find a friend of the opposite gender!)

Extra points if you smooch publicly.

Still working on a revisions letter. This afternoon I get to work on my own revisions letter. And taxes. Every part of my brain is being exercised today. I suppse I should do something with the body, too...

Me? I'm going to make some home-made chocolate kisses. Mmmm.

Comments

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Also, while Manhattan is outrageously expensive, there are plenty of Manhattan-adjacent locations that - while still quite expensive by rest-of-the-country-standards - are more within the realm of affordability, give you Manhattan as a backyard, and offer plenty of $ saving public transit options.

[lagilman]

Hah, you're talking to someone who grew up in NJ, a train ride out of Manhattan, and just moved into the Bronx, a short bus ride out of midtown...

(my folks live in Manhattan, having bought at The Right Time, and I consider that my pied a terre. Sleeping on the sofa is a small price to pay for having crash space on the UES!)

[allaboutm-e.livejournal.com]

As a confirmed country mouse who enjoys visiting the city, and laughs when my city mouse friends come to visit and start twitching from lack of cityscape, I want to say, "well said!"

[lagilman]

I love the country. Going to visit my sister out in the wee tiny town she lives in (population 100, more or less) is great fun. After a few days, I start to twitch...

(I grew up in the 'burbs, and didn't realize until I was in my 30's how very much I hate it. But it works for a lot of people)

[allaboutm-e.livejournal.com]

Whereas we spend a few days in the big city -- whee! Big theatres and museums! Exotic restaurants and shopping options! -- enjoying ourselves, then get very cranky about Too Many People and the consequences thereof...

[lagilman]

we should arrange long-weekend trades... and I'd get puppy-time, too! All wins.

[allaboutm-e.livejournal.com]

Da Boy sez, "New York? Sweet!"

[knitmeapony.livejournal.com]

Already done on the V-Day front -- my friend Jenny and I have tickets to an NPR show taping and reservations at a superfly restaurant beforehand.

[kradical.livejournal.com]

Indeedy hoo hah.

I weighed in on the subject both in his blog and my LJ, actually....

[shana.livejournal.com]

I think the point was that there are cheaper cities than NY, SF and LA.

Some of which might suit the city mice, if they look around for them.

[lagilman]

His original point was that you should, if at all possible, live somewhere cheaper, preferably the cheapest place possible. All discussion since then has been commentary.

And I'm not sure what you mean by "a cheaper city." Once you get to a certain density point, costs of living increase. Boston's expensive. Chicago's expensive. Philadelphia's pretty damn expensive, compared to what it was even ten years ago. I'm told that cities in the Southwest are outrageously expensive, even if you leave out Santa Fe...

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

This mouse wishes for the life of a comfortable Regency gentlemouse who can spend the sporting season in the country and the theater season in the city, but for now has to settle for a small condo near an elevated line and a car that allows access to the country.

This mouse also is grateful for a New Yorker that even allows that Chicago has its attractions.

[lagilman]

This mouse also is grateful for a New Yorker that even allows that Chicago has its attractions.

Tina would kill me if I didn't. *grin*

(I actually like Chicago a lot, and had a lot of people crooking their fingers at me when I was considering where to settle. But in the end, even a Great Lake can't compete with the ocean...)

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Depends on all sorts of stuff, obviously, like the size of one's house. Here in the UK, London prices are sky high, and so are those in the towns within commuting distance (Cambridge, Brighton, Oxford). But small towns in the Cotswolds cost an arm and a leg - more than, say, inner city Hull. And you've got transport costs on top of that. (There's also the point that in this country, most country districts are adjacent to a city - we're less than an hour from Bath and Bristol, e.g.)

I'd rather make the trade off of living somewhere decent and having a day job (I'm lucky, in that it's now my own business, but I've got a lot out of the day jobs and not, quite frankly, written any more productively when I've been entirely freelance. I think it's analogous to one's hair only growing a certain length, no matter how much you'd like it to be longer - there's only a maximum number of words I can rack up in one day).

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

I used to be a city mouse. Then, I became slightly misanthropic. So now I'm waiting anxiously to move to the country house we bought last year. There is a lot of work to be done before, hélas!

[lagilman]

yes, but your city was Paris!

[lagilman]

and there will be pictures of the country house, yes?

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Go here to see the "before" pictures.
http://fake.frenchie.monsite.orange.fr/

And BTW, I need to send you an email privately. What addy are you using in NYC? Lycos or sff?

[lagilman]

sff.net for the personal stuff, yeah

[equesgal.livejournal.com]

I believe that to be truly happy you need to live where you want to live...if that's at all possible.

[lagilman]

Alas, the euro-to-dollar ratio precludes that, for me.

[supertailz.livejournal.com]

I can do better for Valentines day!

I'm going out with my roomate and the person I'm seeing - and we all smooch publicly!

And then I get to see Eddie Izzard, which is the best V-day present ever.

[lagilman]

Izzard FTW!

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

Does this mean I don't have to leave Hawaii? Because, you know, southern Indiana sounds so MUCH more appealing.

[lagilman]

Oh, but don't you want to save every penny, and be damned the morning paddles and the sunsets and the fresh fruit...

(my sister is marrying a guy whose family is from the Big Island. She's going out there this month to meet the family. Oh, the hardship, the trauma!)

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

Hilo side or Kona side?

[lagilman]

I sit corrected -- his folks live in Kaua'i most of the year.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

I grew up in the country. Not in a small town; between two towns of a few hundred people each. (The difference matters -- though not as much in the Catskills area as in Ireland, where farmers and small-town people were sometimes on opposite sides of civil wars.)

A few years ago, the NYTimes had an article about people moving to Ulster County because, among other reasons, houses were so much cheaper than in NYC and the suburbs. The prices were about what houses cost in Minneapolis. I suspect some of those new residents were shocked when they found out what their utilities were going to cost.

Some cities are cheaper than some rural areas and some small towns.