I think we
all know the image of the ‘starving writer’ is long gone. The large majority of
writers and I mean published and even often published writers are pressed to
supplement their writing passion with a day job. Heads up writers, those are the facts of
life.
The question then becomes, what kind of day
job? There are well known writers such as Dan Brown (Da Vinci Code) who taught
school. That can be a great writers’ day job with long breaks in the summer and
usually winter and spring as well. There are drawbacks too. Teachers are often
overwhelmed with work during the regular school year with class planning,
teaching, grading papers and possibly even drawing duty supervising playgrounds
and parking lots. It could mean the writer finds time to write only during
breaks in teaching. And if you want to teach lower grades and write, say erotic
romance novels, that could be a bit tricky. You might need a pen name to say
nothing of how you handle book related appearances. Just a thought.
Some other
writers choose jobs that call for them to write during the day such as
technical writing, resume writing, public relations, catalog description
writing. These all give the writer the opportunity to exercise his or her
writing muscle. The down side to that job is it could be very hard to work on
your great American novel at day’s end after having written all day. Some aren’t the least bit deterred and pound
out those thousands of additional words even after a day at such a job and the
benefit of that kind of work is the potential for a great information flow that
might be used in a novel.
There are
journalist novelists such as Ernest Hemingway. He used his talent and
experiences as a war correspondent to write about war in some of his novels.
And the added benefit of working in journalism is you get a by-line when
published. That’s not a bad thing when putting your creative writing out there.
If you go the traditional route agents and publishers will know your name. If
the digital world calls no doubt getting your identity out there will attract
readers who follow your work in the journalistic field.
If you’re
into screenwriting you might want to try to find a job associated with the
movie industry. Maybe take some ‘extra’ jobs in films or become a ‘reader’ for scripts.
Other
writers think a whole different direction is good for their writing and take
jobs like William Faulkner who shoveled coal and took advantage of quiet times
at the power plant where he worked to write while Stephen King started as a
high school janitor (and you wondered where Carrie came from). Could be that as a writer what you’re looking
for is a day job that pays the bills but is not very demanding and there might
be quiet times when you can slip in some writing. Maybe a desk job that involves reception with
times when the people flow is slow. If you think that less demanding job is for
you just bear in mind the co-worker who want to go to lunch or wants to hang
out at your desk and chat. Don’t know what to tell you about them, you’ll have
to find your own solution.
Think about
it. Work with it early on so you don’t just ‘fall’ into a job you hate to keep
things moving. If you need some training, get it. Then dove-tail that job with
your writing until you can break free into full-time writing you love.
Want a few
suggestions for job hunts and ideas? Try~
http://www.Higheredjobs.com
http://www.job-hunt.org/findingjobs.shtml
http://www.Jobs.stc.org
http://www.Flexjobs.com/jobs/technical-writing
Your local www.Craigslist.org
http://www.Journalism.columbia.edu/page/60-job-hunting-resources/60
Keep an open mind and find a good match.
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