Day jobs that allow you to write?

The way I look at it...I can be angry about having so many things in my life shorten my writing time, or I can be thankful for the times I can find to write.

My career pays a decent salary and makes it possible for me to write without having to worry about the costs of living. I have an obligation to earn that salary with my best efforts. My children are my foremost joy, and the more time I invest in them, the better humans they may turn out to be. All of the work associated with taking care of the daily needs of the kids are wrapped up in an obligation I willfully took on when I decided to have children. So, why should I get angry when these things take up so much of my time? They are all results of MY choices in life, and my ongoing choice to be aggressively conscientious about them.

And with all of this, I do find enough time to complete my stories and put them out there. I frequently wish I had more time to write, but I own my obligations and joys as higher priorities at this time in my life. The creative freedom I find in writing is a very rich frosting on my life-cake.

Best of all, my ego and my self-worth are NOT hog-tied to my writing success, or lack thereof. Which means I can be proud of my writing accomplishments without taking any emotional hits in the time between them, no matter how long that time may be.

Jamesaritchie said:

A job is pretty much a job, and few of them take more than eight hours per day.

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Hyperbole.

Technical writer on a deadline. 12-16 hour days 7 days a week for three months. That was rewriting an entire user manual and help file from scratch and learning the software so I could write about it.

Some deadlines are a little lighter, but still require quite a bit of overtime. And it's usually a salary position, so it's expected of you.

I write in the mornings before work. Yes, it adds to our monthly expenses, but Mr. Hip knows that it's my worktime, and allows me my tall skim latte' before work every day.

Starbucks, Second Cup, local coffee joint-- wherever is closest to my workplace, I'm there before work every morning grinding out words or editing.

I'm a technical writer, and my situation varies between workplaces. I've worked permanent, which can be more demanding on my time, but the contract sitch, even though I put in my 8-hours and leave, can be more taxing on my psyche because I don't get bennies or any of the financial security I get with permanent work.

jjdebenedictis said:

It's not wrong for them to suggest it to you as a possible tactic--it's only if they insist their way is the "right" way that they're being jerks.

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Well, by word-count-fascists I meant the people who tell others they MUST do it their way, which is extremely common. I obviously don't mind someone saying 'this works for me', but it does bug me that I see it presented as gospel almost daily. So I'll stand by my claim that no, it is NOT about writing as many words as possible. It's about finding your way to write a good book. If your way is high daily word count goals, more power to you, but it's not the way and certainly not a goal in itself.

I don'y have a lot of advice re:the job that will allow you to spend time doing something other than your job. The only advice I do have is this: If you can find a way to carve one hour out of your day to make time for writing-related activities now you're going to be much better off.

I fear you may never find the stars align perfectly for you, and you'll continue to not have the time/energy/whatever to write.

I want to share with you my list of responsibilities.

I work, at minimum, nine hours a day at my job as an IT project manager. Sometimes this includes weekends.

I am a single-parent who is homeschooling a teenager.

I am the primary caregiver to both of my chronically ill parents.

I am training for a half-marathon in November.

I write every day.

Sometimes that means I sacrifice an hour of sleep. Sometimes I am writing while I sit in a doctor's waiting room or by my mother's bed at her long-term care facility while she sleeps.

Most of the time I am writing beside my son. We've scheduled writing time together. It counts toward his English credits and gives us the opportunity to share ideas, ask questions or run lines past each other.

It sounds like you might want to set a schedule for yourself and stick with it no matter how fried you feel. Stick to it and pound out words. Pretty soon it becomes habit.

To steal Nike's old slogan: Just Do It. When you do find that dream job you'll just be that much more productive.

There are 24 hours in each day and most jobs require 8 to 12 hours of travel/work time...so that leaves 12 hours each day when you can get a bit of writing done. Many years ago I worked in the security department of a major movie studio here in Los Angeles. I worked the graveyard shift. Sure, I had to patrol soundstages, offices, and the dark backlot streets, but I also stopped now and then to jot down notes, lines of dialogue, sometimes even entire scenes (I should point out that I'm a screenwriter). Then when I got home from work I'd spend thirty minutes and transpose what I wrote to my computer, slowing but surely crafting my outline and eventual screenplay. I worked this routine day in and day out, getting a little bit done each day. I actually sold my first screenplay while working at this studio. So it can be done, you just have to want to do it. As someone mentioned previous to my posting here: JUST DO IT.

I was a reporter for a while, before I took time off to have kids, and from that, I know that you can write anywhere, and in small spurts. You don't have to take hours to write and revise -- I've written stories in fifteen minutes while editors yelled at me to hurry up because the paper was printing, and many times those were better than the ones I worked on for hours.
The best thing you can do is write every day. Blog, if you can't work on your main project, because at least that gets you writing.
I'm working on a book now, and I find that if I want to "work on the book" it's too big a project to do in small spurts and I don't work on it. I need hours of time to really get into the meat of it.
So instead, I have a small section of one chapter open, to the place where I know I need help, and I nibble on that section at night.
And if it still seems too big, I work on my blog.
And I homeschool three kids, including a two-year-old who sits on my lap and hits keys while I type most of the time, so it can be done!
I totally get tired. I get it. But I write anyway.

I work strange hours in a hotel. I meet people from all over the world and that is good for creativity. And most importantly it's a resort in a summer tourist town and shuts down for the winter so I get three months off every year. Good writing job.

It's amazing how much time you can free up if you stop doing one thing - watching television (apart from news to catch up). When I decided to get really serious, and finish my novel this year, I gained 2 or 3 hours in the evening by doing this. I also stopped reading any books (fiction or non-fiction) that I couldn't justify as 'research'.

At the moment I'm teaching two English lessons in the morning, two in the afternoon. Three hour gap in between to sit in the staff room and write. Sure do get some odd looks though!

I realize this is an old thread but I found it the other day while doing an internet search on the topic. Some good ideas here that i'll look into.
I work part time in theatre management for a university and occasionally have time to write while I'm on the job. I've always had the problem of having an idea while I'm at work and no way to get it down. I've found that using an iPhone or iPad is helpful with this. While the iPhone is small and I have some difficulty using it, I've managed to get adept enough to write quickly before the thought dissipates or I have to go and do something.
Most theatre jobs don't afford you time to write, but it is an option I have available to me.

Years ago, when I was fresh out of high school, I worked in a warehouse that was busy one week out of the month. I got a lot of reading done through the other three weeks. I don't want to go back to a job like that, but it was nice at the time.

I'd love to hear any other ideas that people have found.

EMaree said:

I've heard a few people say that mentally stimulating jobs can really wear you out this way -- you go home and you just want to switch off, your brain is too burnt out for writing.

I work a job that's a mix of routine and unusual issues, and it's pretty easy on my fatigue levels. I usually have plenty of juice left for creativity in the evenings and on breaks.

Mental fatigue doesn't hit me during the routine stuff, in fact that seems to make it easier for my brain to think over writing stuff in the background... I'm guessing this is one of those things that varies between writers.

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This!

I have worked in IT for nearly 20 years, and the routine stuff does become sort of autopilot which frees my mine up considerably for writing. The problem was when I got into teaching - there's constantly new stuff being thrown at me that requires brain power and after the adrenaline of teaching for 8 hours wears off, there's not much gas left in my tank.

An old saying goes - nothing worth having comes easy.

In the movie "A League of Their Own", Tom Hanks says "Of course it's hard. If it was easy, everybody would do it. The hard is what makes it great" He was talking about baseball but that axiom applies to anything imho. You want to write and write well? It's gonna take sacrifice - meaning burning the midnight (or daytime oil) depending on your job.

Now if your job is a writer, there ya go - but it's still hard and hardly ever easy!

For me, teaching was the worst for my writing. All of my emotional energy and creativity went into taking care of the kids.

The best were the years I spent doing landscaping, working in a greenhouse, and working at a warehouse for an online store. I now devour audiobooks and podcasts pretty much all day, every day. I also record what I'm working on and listen to it while I'm doing something mindless- that really helps with brainstorming and working out big picture trouble spots.

My background is in Engineering. Started out as a hardware engineer back when we did all our work on drafting boards. As the years went by, computers became prevalent and a lot of our work was done there. Before long our drafting boards were collecting dust.

The problem with CAD (computer aided design) systems was that they weren't developed by engineers, so they never quite fit what we needed to do. So back in the early 80's I decided to start taking programming classes. I was working at Memorex at the time, where one of my mentors was a programmer who once taught high school students. When I told him that I was going to start taking night classes, he asked which courses I was taking. I told him and he paused a moment, then suggested that I add Creative Writing to my list. He said I would figure out why he suggested this on my own.

As it turns out, a computer program can be considered a type of story. It definitely has a plot, but also there are points along the way that have to be visited in order for the plot to work. The Creative Writing course allowed me to view programming from a different angle, and that perspective improved my coding.

Later, when I got into Database Structures and Design, he suggested I study art. My drawing classes taught me to imagine multi-dimensional arrays.

So, programming pays pretty well, and might give a different perspective on writing stories for an author.

I work in construction as a steel fixer (rod busters in. America)
Sometimes ten hours in the sun lumping reo bar with an hour commute each way. I also have a four year old son who I have to give time to when I get home. I still manage three hours minimum a night. If you really want it, you'll make time. I hate my job, which is also great inspiration. But to put the tiny violin down, I usually only do eight hours. Still a master class in time management

I have a 9-5 job working for a mortgage company. I don't get time to write during the day. I'm also a single parent, so I only get time to write early in the morning before I get the kids up for school or after they go to bed in the evening.

The main thing about a day job that's compatible with writing is that it needs to be one that doesn't tire you out. Retail, especially if you're dealing with customers all day (as opposed to working in a warehouse) is very tiring. I would recommend something in an office that's not customer facing. If you do go for something customer facing, then consider how easy the customers are. For example, it's a lot easier dealing with people when you're not having to sell them something or solve problems for them. Dealing with people who are generally polite and pleasant is a lot less demanding than dealing with people who are being confrontational or awkward or even outright rude. (This is why I passionately hate people who are rude to shop workers, waiters, etc.) Shift work and unsocial hours can mess with your sleep/wake cycle and leave your more tired than normal. It's often harder to find 9-5 jobs but it's worth going for them. Temping agencies may be a way to get your foot in the door with regards to office work.

I also recommend looking at other factors that may be contributing to feeling tired all the time. Changing some of these can give you a lot more energy. For example good sleep hygiene, balanced diet, physical exercise and also be aware of medical conditions that make you feel tired all the time (e.g. low iron levels or deficiency in certain vitamins, thyroid issues, etc). Dehydration makes you feel tired. If you're not watching that you're getting enough water, that alone could be making you feel more tired than you should be.

Regarding exercise - a lot of people think that it's going to make you more tired, but my personal experience says the opposite. There's a difference between physical and mental tiredness. Exercise makes you mentally more alert because it increases blood flow to the brain. Probably people think I'm nuts playing rugby on top of being a single parent and working full time, but I'd say that rugby is something that helps keep me sane and makes me feel energised. (And that's not just because I like tackling people into the mud ) I can get back from rugby training in the evening and still get in an hour or so of writing. And I get a break from the kids (that alone saves mental energy).

I get up an hour before the kids each morning (and let them sleep in a bit at the weekend, so it's more than a hour on weekend mornings) and that's a good time to get some writing done.

I used to think that I was the kind of writer that couldn't write anything without sitting down for hours at a stretch - and that used to be true. I've been forced by circumstances to adapt. There are ways to get your brain into writing mode quickly, e.g. having a playlist of music just for writing, or somewhere that you sit for writing. I quite often think about what I'm writing while driving to work or in my lunch hour at work, so I'm doing some of the mental work of writing during the day. That sort of thing makes it easier to sit down and write in the 1-2 hr time slots that I get because I already have an idea of what I'm going to write before I start. Longer time slots are a luxury but obviously I take advantage of them when I can.

I work 9-5 (and freelance) as a copywriter. Couple other copywriters I've spoken to about it have said that they feel burned out and don't want to do any more. That's fair enough I guess, but it also means they don't get any fiction done.

I find the best way to just find a realistic goal every day, and try write that. For me its 1000 words. I try and do it every day (realistically I do it 5 out of 7 days). Books eventually get written.

Also, very true about exercise being good.

I once worked where much of the job was Being Available. You had to look as if you were engaged in work-related tasks--no novel reading, no ear phones listening, no social chatting etc. but primed to jump into action when paged.

Medical students HATED that job, and came and went at breathtaking speed, though the job title would look pretty good on a resume. Me, I just got out pencil and notebook, and wrote fiction while all the world assumed I was hard at work on an Important Scientific Paper.

I work a job that essentially amounts to data entry from 9-5, plus another part time job some nights. Still, I manage to get to my desk at least five nights a week. I don't always feel up to it, but once I've actually talked myself into sitting down and opening up the Word document, the writing itself is usually easier than I thought.

It's a matter of priorities and of discipline. I hate to sound blunt, but you can find an hour or two in your schedule that can be used for writing. It might involve sacrifice--a lot of writers I know simply don't have time to read when they're working on something, for instance. It might involve giving up a lot of your social life, or putting your other hobbies aside, or even sleeping less. There are ways to make this work if you want it to work.