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An office job might be a good place, there is the heat and the ac.
There is also a desk.
Yup. I once worked with a guy who wrote a screenplay after hours in the office we both worked. He was actually ghost writing it for pay for another guy who wanted it, but had no writing skills at all.
Our boss knew about it, and was OK with it as long as it was done after hours.
I read a bit of it. It was a pretty lousy screenplay, but the customer got what he wanted, my co-worker made some extra money, and our boss was reimbursed for the paper and printer costs, so it was all good.
Of course, the bulldog always has to be fed, but with all the people I know, the more effort they put into their creative work, the easier it became to feed the dog. And them, too. Many of them took very simple jobs if they needed to keep some cash flow flowing, work that didn't take a lot of mental effort to do successfully. Menial work that could be left without thought at the end of a shift.
Like working as a full-time dishwasher? That is what I am currently looking for now. When I won't be working, I'll be reading, writing, thinking up ideas, etc...
You will need a “real” job, at least at first. You will also need money for editing, book covers, websites, and the like. If you are looking to make money from writing, you might need to spend some on advertising up front.
You will need a “real” job, at least at first. You will also need money for editing, book covers, websites, and the like. If you are looking to make money from writing, you might need to spend some on advertising up front.
Your first sentence is correct. All beginning writers, fiction or non, need an alternative form of income until/if they make enough money from writing to support themselves.
The rest of your post only applies to those who intend to self-publish. Traditional publishers pay the writer - not vice versa - and offer the editing, promotion, covers, distribution etc. as part of their service.
Your first sentence is correct. All beginning writers, fiction or non, need an alternative form of income until/if they make enough money from writing to support themselves.
The rest of your post only applies to those who intend to self-publish. Traditional publishers pay the writer - not vice versa - and offer the editing, promotion, covers, distribution etc. as part of their service.
Really, it's like any other profession where one works freelance or on an individual contractual basis. People almost never just jump in feet-first and have success. Musicians invariably have day jobs while slowly building a following. Most of them never achieve commercial success to the point where the music is their sole source of income. Stephen King sold his first story many years before Carrie finally made him wealthy - when it did, he was a teacher and his wife was a waitress and they lived in a trailer without a phone line (which they could not afford).
It's certainly possible, but the vast majority don't reach that point. Fiction is a difficult market, and no one really knows the 'special sauce' that makes for a successful book. If anyone did, publishers wouldn't put out dozens of books that lose money or just break even for every one they put out that makes them a lot of money.
In the case of fiction writing, as in novels, there's a long delay between when you begin with IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT and when you see a paycheck. Writing is a long process. The polishing of the work takes some time, as does handing it out for proofreading and feedback, and incorporating whatever changes you deem necessary. Then there's pitching the story to an agent. If you can clear that hurdle and get one, then there's the quest for a publisher. And if you find one, it will be months and months before a check arrives. And even then, it will be some time before further money rolls in - if any ever does.
Don't quit your day job. But work hard, and with a hefty dose of good luck, maybe someday you will be able to do just that.
As a generalized rule, Don't quit your day job is pretty good. The other generalized rule Work Hard, is better.
And while everything you mentioned, Tascio, is true enough in generalization, I'm an old coot who's made a living in the arts for a very long time.
I've seen many folks, especially musicians, who did jump into the business with a full commitment to do nothing else but make music, and their dedication paid off very fast and very fine.
I know some writers who did the same, but fewer of them. Writing, after all, is a less flashy business, so it attracts fewer brash young show-offs than music. But just because a person is a show-off does not mean there is nothing there to show off about. The reverse is more often true.
The same is equally true in writing. Both require taking a massive life risk of failure to do it with full commitment, but in my experience and acquaintance, there are some folks who are simply born to make music and aren't any good at anything else, and there are born story-tellers who aren't fit for anything but telling good stories.
Those who realize this young often have noting at all to lose by going in full-tilt. If worse comes to worse, they can always find some way to scrape by, and they are very accustomed to just scraping by. That's all they did before they jumped in over their head.
The thing is: it takes more than blind luck alone. The learning is the easiest part of it all, as that's what they all want to do the very most. The other stuff- the marketing, the exposure, the meetings, and all the rest come easier when a creative person is at full powers, fresh, and ready to go with a good product and full of the energy it needs to take it to market.
Sure, it's risky. It always was and always will be, but we would never have had Shakespeare if he had been a cautious young man and took a surer, more secure life's course, nor would we have ever had Beethoven or Bob Dylan.
Some folks simply are so driven they must do what the must to achieve their goals.
Once committed, doors sometimes open that only open to the most committed. That's the fact of it.
Yes you need another job to support yourself "until" your writing supports you. There's a reason for my quotes.
You are assuming you will succeed. That's a good assumption not because it's true but because it shows a good attitude. If you assume you'll fail you will. If you assume you'll succeed you may.
Here's a twist you might appreciate, and one of my most favorite authors, Edward Abbey. Read the article, and then please read some of his books. Desert Solitaire is my most favorite, but when he turned to fiction he produced some pretty good romps. Abbey was a park ranger, and many park rangers particularly fire lookouts face a very isolated and boring job. I'm sure Abbey turned to writing just to fill the many empty hours. (Or who knows, maybe he picked the job knowing it was mainly hours of boredom that could be used to write.) Actually I think Abbey picked the job because he was so in love with the outdoors. That sure comes through in all his books, his love of nature. I share that!
I'm glad this topic made me recall Abbey. I think I'll add Desert Solitaire to my permanent ebook collection. It makes for great reading while you're camping!
Get a job. Write in your spare time. Give up your job when you realize it's costing time that would be more profitably spent writing.
An office job might be a good place, there is the heat and the ac.
There is also a desk.
Yes, as long as one doesn't abuse his working hours. Working for someone else doesn't allow someone to use working facilities for their own purposes. An employee is there to make money for his boss first and foremost always. If he fails at that, he fails the job.
An office, unless you own it, isn't the best place to write in anyway, as nothing in it belongs to an employee. No one goes to work with their own tools; tools and conveniences come with a job. An employee brings in a few personal items, and leaves with them when the job is gone.
Writing is about the most portable profession there is. All anyone ever really needs is some paper and a pencil and it can be done anywhere at any time. Everything else connected to it is only a convenience or aids the speed of the finished product. That all can be gained over time or paid for through someone's services.
Mark Twain never set the type for any of the books he wrote. He could, as he knew typesetting well, and lost a major portion of his fortune investing in a badly designed typesetting machine, but he knew where his money came from; taking his writing out of his head by putting it down on paper.
Once that became his full-time job, he no longer trifled with making less money than he could make writing by doing all the other stuff a finished book requires. There are lots of other folks who can't write who could do all that other work.
Twain realized the only thing we all have that is limited is our time. We all will die. We all have a clock built into all our lives from the moment we are born. Once the decision is made to maximize one's time writing as a profession, the chances of greater success lie in the writing, and nothing else.
The interval in between the writing and success is only the time it takes to become a success or a failure. No one ever masters a creative skill on the very first effort. A good first book is only an indicator another, better book may follow, as the second book always profits from the mistakes made in the first.
Of course, that doesn't automatically translate into commercial success, but in the creative arts, monetary success becomes secondary to the person's own creative spirit.
There are millions more dedicated amateurs in all the arts than dedicated professionals. The arts all enrich life, and enrichment can easily become a passion. Passion demands more passion to satisfy it's need.
We all know folks who could easily become professional singers, artists, actors, or whatever and never do.
So a professional always loses some of his passion when his most abiding interest becomes his profession. He has to feed the bulldog, so there are times when the profession becomes as hum-drum as a non-creative job. It can be done well, but to be fully satisfying, some new source of related passion must constantly be discovered for the creative job to keep going.
An amateur already has a job that provides, so he can walk around writing a book in his head for a very long time and be quite happy with it. A pro doesn't have that luxury any more, most often.
The million-seller usually doesn't happen quickly for a professional fiction writer. In fact, it is more likely to never happen at all. But a professional writer can still make a living writing fiction. And, with a good manuscript and some luck, a million-seller can still strike like a thunderbolt.
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