Day Jobs

Hats off to writers with day jobs! And a deep bow to anyone with both day job and family for whom you must cook, counsel, clean, and run errands. I don’t know how you do it. 

When I first started writing mysteries, I lacked the kids but did have a day job, work that averaged 9-10 hours a day and often six days of the week. The way I found time to write was to have major surgery. Not exactly the recommended method, but, for the first time in decades, I could sit without feeling obliged to “do something”, and, interestingly enough, my thoughts went to murder.

The research that went into “Favas Can Be Fatal” was minimal (far too little in fact), but what I had was an outsized and outrageous character mixed into a cozy, contemporary murder romp. The book was not polished in eight weeks, but the bones were in place. This was crucial because, after returning to the day job, time for concentrated creativity was hard to find. The whole experience taught me one or two things.

Unpublished writers have a difficult time being taken seriously even by their loved ones. Writing isn’t work. It takes time away from family and doesn’t pay bills. So why can’t you answer the phone or watch the funny show on TV? One author had a rule for the two hours she shut herself away on the one day she wrote: unless there’s blood, go to daddy. Spouses come home, drop the keys on the table, and start to talk, tearing you out of that crucial scene with the suspect. Is it any wonder the loved mate is greeted with: “Yes, I want to hear about your day, but may I PLEASE FINISH THIS ^&% PARAGRAPH FIRST---dear.”

Community of like-minded folks is therefore crucial to unpublished writers. Take classes, go to conferences, form critique groups with others who also just have to be storytellers.

Explain to the kids and spouse that what you do is a cross between studying for a final and being part of a book club. You have deadlines. If it works to get the message across, call your true vocation a sanity-saving hobby—but keep the conference receipts to prove your serious commitment to the craft.

Negotiate with your family for time alone, preferably in a room with firmly shut door. (Few are like Elizabeth Gaskell who wrote at a podium while her many children committed exuberant mayhem around her feet.) Barring influenza and tax-time, keep to your schedule, leave the cellphone outside, install a cheap pot for the favored beverage, and hide some chocolates for the day when writer’s block hits. As you enter your sanctuary, leave the world of lawnmowers and dishes. Shut your door, speak only to the creatures of your imagination and worry about how they are going to get through the trials you have planned for them.  Then savor your time at the craft to its fullest. 

With perseverance and a bit of luck, you will publish that book. With even greater luck, you can exchange the old day job with a new one…

Comments

[Camille Minichino]

It sounds like you were THERE, or still are, Priscilla. I heartily agree that most nonwriters don't see writing as work. I know my relatives think that I start with page 1 and write steadily to page 350, and the reason it takes months is that sometimes I type slowly.

Few get that interrupting someone writing is not like interrupting someone doing the laundry.

[Susan C Shea]

I wrote when I had a day job, but not as much. Other parts of my life had deadlines, but my novel didn't then. On the other hand, having a pressure-filled day job meant I was in shape mentally to carve out writing time, stick to my schedule, and make every minute count.

[Staci]

Priscilla, you have described my life exactly. It is hard getting people to see writing as actual work, rather than just something fun that you can drop at the first distraction (especially when some of those "people" are 2 and 6 years old). It definitely takes planning and commitment to get any writing done.

[Priscilla]

For some reason, we seem to equate validity with money even though storytelling is a pursuit as old as humans. We aren't alone in this. The Greeks looked to the winning of contests. Wonder how many others wrote plays besides Euripedes and the other best sellers of the time? Maybe the others had to fold the laundry...