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Which jobs are good for writers?

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heykatydid

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I'm a teacher, and I definitely agree with the fact that it's TERRIBLE on your writing motivation. I honestly am so exhausted most days after work (long hours, mentally demanding, and constant creative problem-solving needed) that I can barely manage to make dinner, let alone get any writing done. It was better when I worked at the university level (more office time), but now I work high school, and it's a killer. Teacher burnout is also very real, and zaps creativity and motivation like you would not believe.

I used to have a couple a jobs that were much more writer-friendly. I did some graphic design for book layout (for educational materials) and I have more writing time there, and I also worked overnight shifts at an emergency youth shelter - which was, at times, incredibly emotionally demanding but quite often very slow (there were bursts of activity and then long 12-hour shifts of nothing when the kids were sleeping. I got a lot of writing done there, but like most social work, it was very hard and I wouldn't have been able to keep at it for long. I think working overnights gives you a lot of that down time, but also wrecks havoc on your body's natural clock. I felt like a vampire all the time, and I rarely saw friends & family. I wouldn't recommend it for longer than the 7 months I did it, but I think maybe others would feel differently about it (maybe they love the hours!).
 

CJSimone

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I also worked overnight shifts at an emergency youth shelter - which was, at times, incredibly emotionally demanding but quite often very slow (there were bursts of activity and then long 12-hour shifts of nothing when the kids were sleeping. I got a lot of writing done there, but like most social work, it was very hard and I wouldn't have been able to keep at it for long. I think working overnights gives you a lot of that down time, but also wrecks havoc on your body's natural clock. I felt like a vampire all the time, and I rarely saw friends & family. I wouldn't recommend it for longer than the 7 months I did it, but I think maybe others would feel differently about it (maybe they love the hours!).

This is my experience in juvie. Bursts of activity and then nothing, so lots of time to write and mess around online. But yeah, emotionally demanding when constantly assessing kids for suicide risk and evaluating if they need to go to the psych hospital from here. Lots of burn out and I'm not always sure it's the best choice long-term when I'm listening to suicidal kids all the time and have my own issues. But something like this has it's advantages if you want to write.
 

divine-intestine

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I tutor language through Skype. Pays good money and gives plenty of time for writing.
 

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I think journalism is a career that can mash well with writing, in my limited experience it especially helps with finding out new stuff, meeting interesting people, and if you're lucky traveling to interesting places. Then again, journalists often reduce their texts to essentials, so that might be a hard habit to break and might make your prose seem detached.
 

Albdantesque

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Maybe I should make this question also: do you know any famous (for good quality) writer who devoted 40+ hours a week in irrelevant jobs and, despite this, he/she became a great writer?

From those who I have read and loved, none (to the best of my knowledge) was doing any full time jobs at the time that they wrote their masterpieces... some of them were close to death, some in their 70ies, some totally disabled, but I do not remember any favorite novel to have been written by someone who could afford to sit and write just two or three hours a day :)

I am not saying that there have not been cases when one wrote something good through spending just three hours a day on it, I just want to learn who these writers are...
 
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RightHoJeeves

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I think journalism is a career that can mash well with writing, in my limited experience it especially helps with finding out new stuff, meeting interesting people, and if you're lucky traveling to interesting places. Then again, journalists often reduce their texts to essentials, so that might be a hard habit to break and might make your prose seem detached.

I think journalism can actually be the ideal sort of job for an author. Of course, breaking news journos pare things down, but journos can definitely get features work which lends itself to more descriptive writing.

Unfortunately though, journalism ain't what it used to be! PR can be a really good job for writing.
 

RightHoJeeves

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Maybe I should make this question also: do you know any famous (for good quality) writer who devoted 40+ hours a week in irrelevant jobs and, despite this, he/she became a great writer?

From those who I have read and loved, none (to the best of my knowledge) was doing any full time jobs at the time that they wrote their masterpieces... some of them were close to death, some in their 70ies, some totally disabled, but I do not remember any favorite novel to have been written by someone who could afford to sit and write just two or three hours a day :)

I am not saying that there have not been cases when one wrote something good through spending just three hours a day on it, I just want to learn who these writers are...

There are so many examples. A quick Google showed me heaps of them. Conan Doyle was a doctor. Orwell was a police officer. Vonnegut sold cars (he also used to be the PR officer for General Electric).

To be honest, I'd kind of also reevaluate the line of thinking that you can't write a book with a full time job. Of course there are circumstances in which that is very difficult, but if you tell yourself that it's impossible to do without having oodles of free time every day, you're likely to be one of those writers who puts it off forever until they "have time".

Who cares whether Orwell or Hemingway or Christie had jobs? They also didn't have access to word processors that hugely speed up the writing and editing process.
 

indianroads

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Any job that brings you into contact with a lot of people, possibly involving travel to unique places, and having many interesting experiences.

I'll go with: Outlaw Biker - Hells Angels MC or Outlaws MC would be the top choices.
 

benbenberi

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Anthony Trollope, the great Victorian novelist, wrote 47 novels, mostly of very high quality, while serving as a senior official in the Post Office. He managed that by getting up early every morning & writing 1000 words an hour (by the clock) for three hours before he went off to put in a full day of work at his office. On days when he reached "The End" of a novel before his 3 hours were up, he would take another sheet of paper to start "Chapter 1" of the next book in whatever writing time remained.

Glen Cook, a highly successful writer of SFF, wrote several dozen well-received novels while working full-time for General Motors at an auto assembly plant. At his most productive he was publishing 2-3 novels a year, for which he did a lot of writing during his breaks at the factory. He's retired now, still writing.

If you really want to write, and writing is important to you, it doesn't matter what kind of job you have. You'll make the time to write, because that's what a writer does. If you think you can only write if you don't have a full time job, either you need better time management skills, or you need to admit that you're not really all that committed to writing in the first place. Because a writer writes.
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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I have to tread carefully here, given phrases upthread like "great writers". But to speak to the base question, I wrote the Bobiverse series while working full-time. So strictly from a mechanical point of view, yes you can write novels while holding down a day-job. It's not necessarily easy, mind you. One of the things that helped in my case was moving from a house to a townhouse, so I no longer had to deal with yardwork on weekends.
 

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There are so many examples. A quick Google showed me heaps of them. Conan Doyle was a doctor. Orwell was a police officer. Vonnegut sold cars (he also used to be the PR officer for General Electric).

To be honest, I'd kind of also reevaluate the line of thinking that you can't write a book with a full time job. Of course there are circumstances in which that is very difficult, but if you tell yourself that it's impossible to do without having oodles of free time every day, you're likely to be one of those writers who puts it off forever until they "have time".

Who cares whether Orwell or Hemingway or Christie had jobs? They also didn't have access to word processors that hugely speed up the writing and editing process.

The only full-length novel by Orwell was written in his death-bed. I think he could not get up from his bed the last 6 months of his life. Hence, when he wrote his 1984, he definitely did not work. Hemingway took very long vacations also....
 

Albdantesque

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Anthony Trollope, the great Victorian novelist, wrote 47 novels, mostly of very high quality, while serving as a senior official in the Post Office. He managed that by getting up early every morning & writing 1000 words an hour (by the clock) for three hours before he went off to put in a full day of work at his office. On days when he reached "The End" of a novel before his 3 hours were up, he would take another sheet of paper to start "Chapter 1" of the next book in whatever writing time remained.

Glen Cook, a highly successful writer of SFF, wrote several dozen well-received novels while working full-time for General Motors at an auto assembly plant. At his most productive he was publishing 2-3 novels a year, for which he did a lot of writing during his breaks at the factory. He's retired now, still writing.

If you really want to write, and writing is important to you, it doesn't matter what kind of job you have. You'll make the time to write, because that's what a writer does. If you think you can only write if you don't have a full time job, either you need better time management skills, or you need to admit that you're not really all that committed to writing in the first place. Because a writer writes.

I got some mailroom duties lately, since the mailroom clerk disappeared, and believe me is much more better than some other duties. Anyway, thank you for the advice! Right now I am writing my (second) MA thesis in philosophy, while working full time.... and that is what probably has exhausted me. Fiction may be different, but I do suppose that even within fiction there are different levels of difficulty; plays, for example, need more wine and nerves than diaries and love stories. Anyway, I do agree that the individual (her strengths and qualities) sometimes turn to be the final court of appeal.
 
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indianroads

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I misinterpreted the OP's initial question, as asking for jobs that might give inspiration and story ideas, or that might teach writing structure and discipline. Apparently OP was asking about jobs that allowed enough time off to do the actual writing.

Jobs provide income, so OP will need to assess needs regarding that. Once a job is found where an acceptable standard of living can be attained, then attention can be paid to writing. My belief is that writing itself usually starts out as a second career, after the basic needs of shelter, food and drink are met.

Time itself doesn't write novels or spur creativity - experience does that (IMO). How can someone describe the experience of standing on a glacier in winter without having done it? Or fight in a military conflict? Personally I think gaining experience before (figuratively) putting pen to paper is more important than having enough time to sit down and write. If your story is compelling, you'll make the time to work on it.
 

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The only full-length novel by Orwell was written in his death-bed. I think he could not get up from his bed the last 6 months of his life. Hence, when he wrote his 1984, he definitely did not work. Hemingway took very long vacations also....

Orwell wrote several novels. 1984, Animal Farm, Aspidistra, Coming up for Air, and a few more. They're all "full length" as far as I remember, in that they're novel-length and tell a full story.

I got some mailroom duties lately, since the mailroom clerk disappeared, and believe me is much more better than some other duties. Anyway, thank you for the advice! Right now I am writing my (second) MA thesis in philosophy, while working full time.... and that is what probably has exhausted me. Fiction may be different, but I do suppose that even within fiction there are different levels of difficulty; plays, for example, need more wine and nerves than diaries and love stories. Anyway, I do agree that the individual (her strengths and qualities) sometimes turn to be the final court of appeal.

Fiction and non-fiction are both hard work if you're focusing intently on them. Different animals, yes, but no less tiring to write. Working full-time is hard work. Writing well is hard work. Of course it's tiring to do both at once. But that doesn't mean you can't.
 

D.L. Shepherd

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I started reading this thread, but honestly didn't finish, so I'm not sure if this was mentioned. If you are looking for twenty hours + benefits (after you've been there a bit of time), see if you have either a Whole Foods or a Costco nearby. Maybe you can find a job at one of those places that suit you? Costco especially is known to treat their employees pretty well!
 

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What about a job in the communications field?
 

LeftyLucy

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What about a job in the communications field?

This is what I do. I freelanced for years (and made a decent living that way), which eventually turned into a traditional job with one of my clients. The "con" is that the work (at least for me) draws on the same well of creative energy I use for my fiction. When work is busy, I'm less effective writing fiction (and vice versa). The "pro" is that I'm still working with words every day, and particularly working with the strategy of how people receive words, and I'm certain that's made me a stronger fiction writer.
 

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This is what I do. I freelanced for years (and made a decent living that way), which eventually turned into a traditional job with one of my clients. The "con" is that the work (at least for me) draws on the same well of creative energy I use for my fiction. When work is busy, I'm less effective writing fiction (and vice versa). The "pro" is that I'm still working with words every day, and particularly working with the strategy of how people receive words, and I'm certain that's made me a stronger fiction writer.

Good feedback!

Edit: If you don't mind me asking, what jobs are available in the communication field?
 
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benbenberi

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Edit: If you don't mind me asking, what jobs are available in the communication field?

Besides the obvious writer jobs in journalism, web-content & general freelance writing-on-assignment, there are other big job areas that jump out as needing a lot of writers -- technical writing, corporate communications, marketing communications & PR are some that come to mind at once.

I agree with LeftyLucy, though, these may draw on the same creative brain-juice as fiction writing, so if the goal is to find a job to subsidize the fiction rather than something that's stimulating in its own right, you may prefer to work in a field whose skillset is more of a contrast than an overlap.
 

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I would suggest any 40hr/wk job which engages your brain, but not something that involves writing. I work as a systems administrator, but only forty hours per week. Working out website migrations, database backup schedules, etc., engages a totally different aspect of creativity (and yes, that sort of thing can be mighty creative) than writing does. PLUS: regular salary, benefits, etc.

Right now I have a lot of downtime, having finished a major server migration and just starting on a rebuild of a large in-house time tracking/budgeting product. So I spend it writing and scanning the AW forums.
 

LeftyLucy

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Besides the obvious writer jobs in journalism, web-content & general freelance writing-on-assignment, there are other big job areas that jump out as needing a lot of writers -- technical writing, corporate communications, marketing communications & PR are some that come to mind at once.

Yes, all of these.

I actually started my freelance career as a resume writer. You can teach yourself how to write a great resume (if you've got good writing and analytical skills, it's not hard), then work for one of the many resume writing farms online. They're always hiring, and you'll get somewhere between $50 and $100 per resume. The work varies a lot - some of those resumes are easy as pie and you'll clear $50 for less than an hour's work - and some of them will take several hours and the client will be annoying, and it's less fun. But if you're good at it, you can make a livable income doing that.

For me, resume writing turned into business writing, because I would develop really good relationships with my resume clients, and they would like my work, and they'd go on to get the job they wanted and would think of me when they had a writing need. No matter what they asked if I knew how to do, I said "yes" and then learned how to do it. "Do you write training materials?" "Yes." "Do you write product descriptions?" "Yes." "Do you ghost-write for executives?" "Yes." "Do you script videos?" "Yes." (I did all of those things, having never done them before, and got asked to do all of them again and again, and was paid well for them.) The key to building a career this way, though, is that you have to be willing to work very, very hard. So if you're specifically trying to reserve your writing energy, don't go this route - stay with one thing you know how to do, like writing resumes, or writing product descriptions. I'd probably be further along in my development as a fiction writer if I hadn't pursued this kind of career. (The flip side is, I probably also wouldn't have my house or retirement savings or those nice things, either - you take the good with the bad, yanno?) But even if I'm not an author yet, I get to be a writer every day, and I can't complain about that.
 
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If you enjoy reading and writing, do not become an English teacher because you will have no time/energy to read and write. Become a math teacher: it takes very little time to correct math homework/tests, and planning lessons is easier as well. I am very jealous of my math teacher colleagues and their free time; the math teachers look confused when I talk about the need to spend hours of time grading at home.

That is what I tell any starry-eyed students who tell me they want to become English teachers. I like to think I have "saved" a few aspiring writers in this way.
 
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