Writing While "Working"

I don't write at work. For me, it's a combination of being busy, fairly strict document-sharing protocols and the fact that the environment really isn't conducive to writing.

On slow days, I will sometimes do a bit of research, though.

I write at work too. I work alone & my days are super slow. When I was hired, my boss said, "Bring a book." I write them instead.

auntybug said:

I write at work too. I work alone & my days are super slow. When I was hired, my boss said, "Bring a book." I write them instead.

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I want your job. Any tips on how to find a job where I can write at work?

One word: University. I work as an office manager for an academic department at a university. My job takes me about 10 hours a week. I spend the other 30 hours writing, blogging, chatting, and farting around.

ACEnders:
I'm just curious, how many of you write while you're at you paying job?

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Nope. I'll surf the web and check out AW whilst I'm working if things are a bit slow or I'm twiddling my thumbs waiting for typing to come back etc, but I'm very careful to take my writing outside to a local cafe during my lunch hour. I'm not paid to work on my own manuscript during work hours and I'd regard it as dishonest to be doing so whilst accepting my salary.

MM

It is rarely slow in my office, and I have to keep all my ongoing tasks loaded in my brain, so switching to writing tends to counter that (I am a horrid multi-tasker). It does sometimes get a bit slow, in which case I have done a bit of research or some poetry. Since January of this year, though, it has mostly just been crazy insane, enough that it has actually affected my writing at home. Downloading all the work stuck in my head so I can upload my WIP is killing me right now.




-Michelle

I don't at this job, but I have at others--always with the boss' knowledge and blessing. As long as I was interruptable for money work, they just wanted me to look busy and typing away on Word and occasionally muttered under my breath acheived that.

This job's entirely too hectic to do anything more than occasionally pop in here for a mental health break during the day. But I'd love to get paid to write again.

I'm right with you on that. My most recent work, THE CAIN LETTERS, I wrote mostly at work. Took me about six months to finish. I'm trying not to write nearly as much during work, because it does set me back a lot here. I have deadlines.

I'm a nurse in an Intensive Care Unit- sometimes I don't even have time to pee let alone write! But on the flip side, I only work 3 days a week and write on my days off.

(runs outside, checking sky for portentous thunderclouds)

Never ever.

(waits for inevitable lightning strike)

Does school count? I always write my stories during class. When class gets boring, or there's no assignments left to be done, I just write away! Or you can always see me multitasking, doing classwork whilst writing fiction. If you can just take a five minute strecher and write something. An idea isn't going to wait for you to write it down, so if a light bulb pops up, get something out.

You guys are so lucky to have work. Don't ask why.

I agree with Momento Mori. I am paid a salary to do my job; it would seem dishonest to write during the time I am being paid to work.

I also believe it makes my life a whole lot less complicated if I keep the day job and the writing completely separate entities.

(That doesn't mean I don't occasionally take a peek at AW on quiet days, however)

Shara

My job is often drought or drown. Some days I have almost nothing to do. Others, I have to do 3-days worth of work in one. It all depends. On slow days, there's only so much make-work I can give myself so I might take some time to write (I often get stuck working longer hours than I can get paid for, so I don't feel bad). I'm also required to be in the office for 9 hours each day, but can only charge time for 8 (the joy of being pseudo-salaried). That extra one hour is supposed to be a lunch break, but no one cares what I do with it. So if I eat fast, I can write (or surf AW).

I do a lot of my writing, research, querying and printing out of submission materials while at work. I have one of those jobs like Ink Wench where Monday-Wednesday are usually insane and Thursday-Friday are usually dead.

Of course, I wouldn't be able to get away with it if I wasn't (a) really good at what I do and (b) highly placed at my job.

It's a perk. I'll admit it.

I am usually at least pondering writing stuff while I'm working. I've been known to jot down inspirations during meetings and such. But I try to save the actual writing portion for my lunch breaks. (sometimes, this means I have to type REALLY fast to get it all down in time)

If I were actually shirking my working to write, I might feel "dishonest" as some have opined. The fact is--my job doesn't have enough work for me to do. I'm required to be physically present 40 hours a week, but there just aren't 40 hours of work to do. Unless I work reeeeeeeallllllly slowly. Of course, it explains why until me they had a hard time keeping anyone in this position--boredom.

I can't write at work. I do have plenty of time (night porter at a hotel), but the idea that could be interrupted keeps me from focussing properly. When I'm "in a scene" I need to go forward. If I'm kicked out, it's quite possible that I lose what I've written so far, in that I don't find the right approach to continue. (I was struggling through a scene once, when I was interrupted by a phone call. All the time writing was lost. I ended up deleting that scene.)

I write during boring classes, or classes that are so simple I don't need to pay attention to pass. So I take my laptop, spend the whole hour typing, ocassionaly look up to the professor and every two or three classes answer a particularly difficult question no one seems to know to reassure the teacher that yes, I am learning something.

I'm mostly temping at the moment so it depends on the job. Today I managed to get a good 1500 words done on my main piece. I always try to write during my lunch break although today I was pretty exhausted so I probably only got 3-400 words done on my side project which I'm writing in long hand.

I edit my butt off while at work, but haven't written anything from scratch ... yet.

I'm on the books for five hours a day, but I hang out for eight. So three of those hours are all mine, apart from answering the phone or doing the occasional emergency job. It's one of the perks I claim for being overeducated and underpaid.

While I haven't written since the beginning of the year - almost half of my WIP (I think I'm at about 60K) was writtin here at my desk at work.



sidenote: the other half was written at home.