don't quit your day job

goldhorse said:

Raise your hand if you are not a lawyer or a teacher.

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Another teacher here! I teach 10th grade American Literature and Creative Writing...woo-hoo!

Interesting jobs--and there are a lot of lawyers and teachers! Gonna break the mold here...I'm in the arts....

I'm a graphic designer/sign maker, who insanely is going back to school to get a Masters...

I'm a college senior studying Business Administration full-time. I also work as the desk lead at a residence hall. Plus, I'm a marketing intern for a design and branding firm. Oh, and the writing thing.

I'll be happy when NaNoWriMo is over so I won't be (as) sleep-deprived all the time. With everything I'm doing, I can finish an 80k-word book in maybe 3-4 months. Not one month. I'm determined to win again, though, which means I need to pull a couple more 5k days.

goldhorse said:

Raise your hand if you are not a lawyer or a teacher.

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I work for the federal government doing computer stuffs.

I'm a nanny.

I'm a magazine editor, and I freelance write as well

Heavenlydemonick said:

I feel like most you actually have jobs you enjoy/that can potentially help in your writing career... I'm a pharmacy technician.

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That's not true. I worked in a pharmacy for a while (granted, as a cashier) and the exposure to the wide range of human characters was extremely helpful. Plus, if you ever need to know anything about medication, you're already that much further ahead in your research than someone like me would be.

KateSmash said:

I'll trade with you! Because the staying home and hanging out in your PJs while you imagine things gets old after a while. It quickly descends into the madness of sleeping until noon, watching horrible tv, and eating a lot of Cheez-its. With a little spinning in your chair and trying to write on the side. Then again, I don't have any children to take care of yet and the whole hausfrau role kind of fell on me.

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I was the same for my first two years in Paris. For me, stay at home without the 'mom' part wasn't quite as mentally stimulating. Or physically. Or any kind of stimulating. I went a little crazy. But that was with the added disadvantage of living in a country where I don't speak the language and had no friends or family.

Ah, good times.

I teach. Geography and history. Loving it right now, but I don't see myself doing it till I'm 67.

I'd best get that writing thing on the road.

Seems like there are a lot of computer type people in addition to the lawyers and teachers (graphic design, IT, other cubicle drones).

It's really cool to see the variety of backgrounds, though! I'm interested to see if we get any engineer types (every engineer I know is a horrendously bad writer, I'd love to see some good ones!).

KateSmash said:

I'll trade with you! Because the staying home and hanging out in your PJs while you imagine things gets old after a while. It quickly descends into the madness of sleeping until noon, watching horrible tv, and eating a lot of Cheez-its. With a little spinning in your chair and trying to write on the side. Then again, I don't have any children to take care of yet and the whole hausfrau role kind of fell on me.

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Right now, I'll make that trade! I chair spun for the first few months after we moved to our current locale. Hubby had a job, I didn't. I wasn't writing at the time and didn't know a soul, so it got boring. Now though, I'd love that freedom again!

I'm a college student and I work in the IT dept of that college.

missesdash said:

I was the same for my first two years in Paris. For me, stay at home without the 'mom' part wasn't quite as mentally stimulating. Or physically. Or any kind of stimulating. I went a little crazy. But that was with the added disadvantage of living in a country where I don't speak the language and had no friends or family.

Ah, good times.

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I agree. I'm a college student (but English, so I'm getting prepared for the bleak years of unemployment ahead), but when I had long breaks with nothing to do, I really struggled. I felt bored and frustrated almost all the time, and it made writing much more difficult. For some awful reason, I ALWAYS want to write when I have tons to do, and when I have nothing to do, I'm staring at a blank page and wondering what I did to deserve this punishment

I photograph couples in luuuurve for a living. Which is a nice way of saying I kiss the asses of many a bride and groomzilla and spend about 30 hours per wedding editing pictures.

I dream of the day when I can make a living from writing alone. Until then, anyone getting hitched?

P.S. It does have its perks. Earlier this year I got to photograph an actual proposal, and that got me all teary-eyed. Hippos may have thick skin but we have soft hearts...

missesdash said:

I was the same for my first two years in Paris. For me, stay at home without the 'mom' part wasn't quite as mentally stimulating. Or physically. Or any kind of stimulating. I went a little crazy. But that was with the added disadvantage of living in a country where I don't speak the language and had no friends or family.

Ah, good times.

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How did you survive?! When I moved to Oxford from California I got so depressed, and I speak the language, so that wasn't a barrier. Glad to know you're no longer in that stage...it was damned depressing for me. :hug

Putputt said:

How did you survive?! When I moved to Oxford from California I got so depressed, and I speak the language, so that wasn't a barrier. Glad to know you're no longer in that stage...it was damned depressing for me. :hug

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Some here when I moved to London after college. I wouldn't want to relive those days (just the early days, not London in general). I finally started temping just to get out of the house and, well, that was worse than staying home. Let's just say I came very close to moving back a bunch of times.

I'm going to school to be an English teacher. Basically, I'm studying to be unemployed. But when I'm not up to my ears in homework, I'm working as a clerk in my mom's office.

Niiicola said:

Some here when I moved to London after college. I wouldn't want to relive those days (just the early days, not London in general). I finally started temping just to get out of the house and, well, that was worse than staying home. Let's just say I came very close to moving back a bunch of times.

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Where did you move from? I definitely want to move back to Cali. All the rain in England ain't doing me good. I need my LA smog.

Technically I'm a biology instructor at a university. I teach the lovely (and much esteemed ) freshman-level animal and plant biology courses, sophomore-level A&P, and now do what I guess you'd call freelance work in our genetics research laboratory. (AKA, I recently finished my degree and just wants more publications with mah name on 'em.)

I'm unemployed/on disability benefits.

I guess that makes me a full-time writer, though? I feel odd using that title when I haven't drafted anything since, oh, March? Plus I just had 1PM breakfast consisting of croissants with chocolate sprinkles.

... Actually, that sounds about right. Full-time writer it is!

I studied art, though. I'm still open to portrait commissions but I don't actively pursue them, which means I'm pretty much twiddling my thumbs on the art front.

Putputt said:

Where did you move from? I definitely want to move back to Cali. All the rain in England ain't doing me good. I need my LA smog.

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I moved from Massachusetts. So the cold didn't bother me but the permanent gray and rain really did (I figured out after I moved back that I have a touch of seasonal affective disorder -- a light box really helps with that). Southern Cali to England must have been one hell of a transition! Oxford is gorgeous though

I sit around all day in my pajamas staring blankly at Scrivener and eating Grasshopper cookies.

That is, until school lets out and I go to my day-but-not-really-during-the-day job at a learning center.

I'm an editor at an alt weekly newspaper. It's stimulating and exhausting and never ends.

I'm in charge of our book coverage, so every month I get 101 self-published books or press releases about them, as well as a trickle of trade published ones. At any given time I have several authors mad at me because I didn't like their book or couldn't get through it or just didn't have time for it. So yeah, with me also being an unpublished novelist and feeling their pain but wishing they would chill out, it's weird.