Quitting your day job... for another day job?

Become a nighttime security guard in an office building. If you can stay awake you'll have plenty of time to write.

Not that I've ever done it . . .

Landscaping. Get your hands dirty and breathe the air. Then you can go home and write because you haven't exhausted your brain looking for that $1.25 that isn't where it ought to be in the company ledgers.

The job that pays my bills and then some is “LAN Administrator”. Now ask if I'm happy, no, but we do what we do to achieve other things. I’m waiting for George Clooney to realize he can’t spend another day without me requesting I quit my job and move to his Italian villa.

Night time security work is ace for writing. Plenty of time, and you have to stay alert and always be watching and listening. It's knackering though, and you can never go out drinking in the evenings, and it doesn't pay nearly as much as a desk job. I'm still looking for the perfect way to combine writing with earning money.

I have two part time day jobs - substitute teacher and ESL tutor. The ESL tutoring has been the most rewarding jobs I have ever had, for I feel a sense of accomplishment,as though I am needed, something lacking when I work as a substitute teacher and which I have yet to experience as a writer. So, the universe does provide, even when it isn't in your chosen calling. Both these part time jobs give me the flexibility to work on my writing. It is up to me how much I work - of course, finances play a big part in determining how many days I choose to work.

I hate the fact that I have to work, quite honestly. I didn't major in business nor did I major in education; hence, I don't want to "work." I want to write. I should be able to write.

Meanwhile, I have a desk job where I'm underpaid.

Retail management, while highly stressful and exhausting this time of year, leaves me craving some sort of mental release when I come home at night. I always have time during the day to think about my stories; I scribble notes in a mini notebook that stays in my apron pocket; I get to observe human behavior on a daily basis.

It's not great pay, but I can live on it. Without my writing as my therapy, I would have had a nervous breakdown by now.

FergieC said:

Night time security work is ace for writing. Plenty of time, and you have to stay alert and always be watching and listening. It's knackering though, and you can never go out drinking in the evenings, and it doesn't pay nearly as much as a desk job. I'm still looking for the perfect way to combine writing with earning money.

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I was a professional driver. I was behind the wheel 10 to 15 hours a day. I kept a tape recorder and talked my story.

I sit at a desk..Hospice Business Coordinator. I used to be overworked. They took some of the load off which was a real relief, but then the census dropped and we started losing money and nurses. So now its kinda boring at times, but picking up.

I write when I can. I realize the day may never come when I can make a living doing this, but I write on breaks, during my lunch and after my kids go to bed. Its kind of a reward to myself for getting through another day.

chaostitan said:

Retail management, while highly stressful and exhausting this time of year, leaves me craving some sort of mental release when I come home at night. I always have time during the day to think about my stories; I scribble notes in a mini notebook that stays in my apron pocket; I get to observe human behavior on a daily basis.

It's not great pay, but I can live on it. Without my writing as my therapy, I would have had a nervous breakdown by now.

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Eww. Retail. I hated management. Bigger checks but more hours and stress. I was better off on the floor.

I did have a retail job in a hardware store. I loved it! I became quite popular solving problems for the customers - above and beyond...

I recall helping a guy design his entire car port.

Eight hours, low stress, appreciation, lunch break. But it was before I tried serious writing.

readjdm said:

What's the best way to earn a living when you're still not earning multimillion dollar book deals?

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people haven't been actually telling you this is going to happen for you, have they?

Delarege said:

I was better off on the floor.

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Very often they have to scrape me up off the floor. We keep a shovel handy for that....

indeed.

what i've found in many years of working as a writer is that the same frustrations persist. only instead of wishing one could be writing while occupied with earning a living, one simply finds that one is writing for hire and wishes one could be working on one's "own" stuff.

to the degree that one must earn a living, writing will always be a labor of love, conducted in stolen moments and carved-out hours when one is tired or could/should be doing other things. it's up to the individual to decide if that sacrifice is worth it.

best wishes on your pursuit.

Bartend.
You can make up stories behind the bar, and you get to meet all kinds of characters and hear their stories. In the right spot, pay is pretty good--my last gig, I brought home 40k a year, and only worked four nights a week.
Plus, free booze.

Well yeah, I like to write, too and wish I didn't have to work. But I prefer to see the best in situations. I'm just saying, if you have to work at another job along with writing, what I do isn't bad.

engmajor2005 said:

I hate the fact that I have to work, quite honestly. I didn't major in business nor did I major in education; hence, I don't want to "work." I want to write. I should be able to write.

Meanwhile, I have a desk job where I'm underpaid.

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As an alternative, I have learned to use my day job to writing advantage. As an engineer who can write well (for some reason the two don't seem to come together in one body very often), I have had more than my share of the writing workload over my 32 year career. Since I got the bug to write creatively--about 6 years ago--I have tried to hone my writing skills in my business writing. I try to eliminate passive voice from my business letters, cut adjectives/adverbs from construction specifications, look for better, more descriptive words in technical reports, etc. And I try to make every e-mail in perfect English just as if I were printing and putting it in an envelope. I figure all of this will serve me well as I try to write my way into a creative writing career. But, if it doesn't work, retirement is now only 10 years and 4 days away.

NDG

Norman D Gutter said:

But, if it doesn't work, retirement is now only 10 years and 4 days away.

NDG

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Happy birthday.

I work in a used bookstore (I'm there right now, actually). it means that I putter around, deal with books, drink tea, answer things on AW, and have ideas pop into my head. If they're worth it, I right them down, or I just stew on them.

Mostly, even when I have the downtime for it, I don't do any writing here. I just think and stew and think some more. It's the job equivalent of the long walk you take when you're thinking about your work.

Oddly enough, I was just thinking about night security guard the other day, wondering what you have to do to get into that.

(Probably have muscle mass and an attention span that can keep track of a cup of tea, for starters.)

Yeah, what do you need for night security guard?

engmajor2005 said:

Yeah, what do you need for night security guard?

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A pulse.

You need almost no experience or qualifications to be an unarmed security guard.

I'm nocturnal anyway, that wouldn't be a bad job. Unless it's at the Natural History Museum in New York, as seen in Night At the Museum which you should all go see, because it was a magnificant movie, and I hadn't realized that Mickey Rooney was even still alive......