Writing with a Day Job

It's amusing that I picked a career as a writer because I don't think I have enough dedication to become a veterinarian as it involves 6+ years of schooling and you are forever having to update your knowledge to keep up with the latest research. And yet to become a writer you need to spend at least two years on a novel - generally a lot more, it took Tolkien more than twelve years - including lots of rewriting, editing, self disclipine and many writers don't even making enough off their published workers let alone whilst they are writing them!

Which bring me to the topic of this post: Writing with a day job. The majority of writers have these, as you need to be very successful or have another source of income like a spouse or some sort of Government income.

This of course can make it very difficult to write depending on what type of job you have. A mind numbing job which bores you to tears can be very determental to the progress of your novel. Your creativety just isn't following and all you want to do when you get home is zone out watching re-runs of Friends or reading an easy book.

Then of course you have those wonderful jobs that are stimulating and challenging and ensure you are use your creative juices. As soon as you get home you launched into your latest project and get done a decent amount of work no matter how little time you have to do it. 

And of course the DREAM JOB. The one where you work enough and get paid enough to pay the bills & feed the family, where you have to be there for some specific purpose like answering the phone so you're getting paid, but have enough free time to work on your novel, and a wonderful boss who allows you to write. 

However the DJ isn't readily available to everyone, does it even exhist? So below I've put together a list of jobs which would be an ideal job for a writer - and hope that after my traineeship I can find a similar job to support my writing, but also not go broke!

1. Part time working in retail - You could work 15, 20, 30 hours a week leaving at least two maybe three or four days to write. Just after finishing school I worked in a clothing store for 15 hours a week. Sure the pay wasn't great for the small amount of hours I worked, but living at home I didn't feel the loss of money, got to write heaps whilst my parents and siblings were away and got a quick kiss off my boyfriend once a day when he was doing deliveries ;) Win, win.

2. Night time door staff at a club - Sure on busy nights this wouldn't be helpful to write, you'd have to make sure everyone has signed in and keep away drunken people. However on quiet nights, especially in winter when the place is nearly dead, but you must be there in case someone comes in there would be a wonderful amount of time to write. Being nighttime the manager may have gone home already, or be in the club socialising with the patrons and you may have a slightly more relaxed superviser who doesn't care if you are writing because you have nothing else to do. And once you head home for the night at 12am, sometimes as early as 9pm on quiet nights, you'd wake up 10am refreshed from sleep and have hours to write before starting at 5pm.

3. Receptionist - Slightly similar to number 2. There is not always phone calls to answer or customers to see and when all your jobs are done you can surf the net for research, email yourself a copy of your latest draft from home to re over and re-work or email yourself the next chapter you've written.

4. Shift working in a Cattery - I recently found a job vacany for a part time worker or part time manager. You work in the morning starting a 8ish for a few hours, then come back at 3 till 5. You'd have time in the middle of the day to write and get to play with cute kittens!

5. Be a housewife of a millionaire who has a maid and cook! haha