A witty, soulful memoir about trying to make a living under the burden of unwelcome truths, from the author of the essay that helped ignite #MeToo in Canada. Through the stories of several very odd jobs, each related to the job she really wants--to be a writer--poet and essayist Emma Healey wrestles with identity, work and language, encountering obstacle after obstacle to her ambitions, including doubt whether her desire to make a living as a writer even makes sense. As a teenager, she is introduced by her actor/playwright mother to the role of "standardized patient"--a sort of living training dummy for medical students. As a recent university graduate, she writes software manuals for the world's leading producer of online pornography, masters the art of search engine optimization for a marketing firm run out of the owner's bedroom, and narrowly escapes death as a research assistant for a television drama. Along the way she navigates dating apps, tumultuous relationships and difficult misadventures, all of which she brings to bear on the evolution of a voice that she is slowly learning to trust. For a writer trying to pay the bills, life can be a work in progress.