Does a fiction writer have another main source of income? (sentence, money)

[Life7]

I’ve been reconsidering my childhood dream to become a writer. But I’ve been thinking that a writer should have another everyday job as their main source of income if they won’t be writing an amazing masterpiece every day or if they're not super successful like J.K. Rowling. Is this true?

[jdhpa]

You have to support yourself somehow until you consistently make enough from writing to do the job.

[JeanieCoyle]

I have a very close friend that has had this dream for about 10 years. Sadly, he is still working for the state and trying to write in his spare time.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by Life7

I’ve been reconsidering my childhood dream to become a writer. But I’ve been thinking that a writer should have another everyday job as their main source of income if they won’t be writing an amazing masterpiece every day or if they're not super successful like J.K. Rowling. Is this true?

I think it's a good idea to hold down a day job. Many successful authors have done it, even when they no longer needed the income.

A job can be a benefit to a writer in many ways other than the wage it brings. Writing is solitary work, but too much isolation can become a very bad thing, as a writer needs life experiences to write well. And we are all part of a social species, so self-isolation always needs some relief.

Don't look at Rowling as a typical success. She isn't, in any usual way, at all. Rowling actually wanted a job, but when she began writing out all of the ideas she had carefully created in her complete alternate universe for over a decade before they finally became a story, she was simply at the most desperate point ever in her life.

So, for her, writing was her last forlorn hope. That is in no way typical of a successful novelist.

And you aren't J.K. Rowling. No one else is. You are you, and you have to take your own concerns first and foremost. If that means holding down a job while you hone your writing chops, so be it.

Consider the everyday working world all grist for your mill. There is always a story somewhere in it, even when "it" is a humdrum existence.

[Life7]

Thanks for the replies!

[fleetiebelle]

Most people I know who are writers, artists, musicians, etc. have a day job that allows them the security to pursue their passion. They'd have to be very successful to be able to support themselves solely by their art.

[banjomike]

This thread is old now, but I began thinking about it after re-reading it.

I know quite a few people in the arts including musicians, actors, writers, artists, and sculptors. The majority of them eventually became good enough at what they do to become full-time professionals doing it, and for some, making a career out of their work began very early in their lives.

While I still agree with my first post, I no longer think holding down a day job while a person wants to be a writer is not always a good thing if the day job stifles the creative impulse and burns up too much valuable time that could be better spent writing.

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.

Many have also done more than one creative endeavor at a time, too. I know a professional bass player who wrote a book of short stories during the day while he played the bass at night, and eventually found is music, not his writing, was his true calling But he managed to sell his book.

That's the thing of it. Until you give it your best shot, you will never know just what can come of your dream to write until you have turned the dream into reality with a completed work. If the dream is so strong as to be consuming, it may be better to jump in and learn if you truly want to write as a profession, or if it is only a pleasant fantasy.

The folks I know all have said the same thing about the work they do. "I realized it's the only thing I wanted to do." Some said "It is the only thing I'm good at doing." I think those sentences actually say the same thing. A person always works at something they can do well longer than something they don't do well. All work that gratifies the individual is work that makes them the most happy.

[jetgraphics]

SHOULD a fiction writer have another main source of income?

YES, if one needs to spend money.
NO, if one does not need to spend money.

The answer is not facetious. Many cultures exist without the pressing need for money in order to survive and thrive.
If one has a dwelling, grows most of what one eats, and has few expenses, the need for money is not a driving factor in supporting one's lifestyle.

In fact, the less money one needs, the more likely one will find happiness being a productive, creative person. People who "do it for the money" are often warped by market pressures, becoming that which they abhor.

[banjomike]

There is often a happy middle ground in the arts that allows a good compromise between commerce and art. Most of the folks I know who have careers as serious creatives began in less serious efforts on a daily job.

Toulouse Lautrec did quite well for himself painting poster designs for a Paris saloon, and Mark Twain did pretty well writing for newspapers. The commercial work allowed both of them the money they needed to live well while working on more serious efforts, although Lautrec didn't need to work at all, as he was born into a wealthy family.

It could be easily argued that with both, their commercial work improved their finer work as well. Painting is painting, and writing is writing. Commercial work is both practice and discipline.

There is a fine line between the best commercial writing and literature. We all read very good writing every day that is done by good anonymous writers. I'm sure more than one of them comes home, satisfied from a day's work, and begins his work on the great 21st century novel in the evening.

I've found that creative people are very often creative in more than one area, as I mentioned earlier. Sometimes one creative area gives another some relief from all the strain that comes from serious and demanding work in another.

Tal Farlow, the great jazz guitarist, could always make a very good living playing his guitar, but all his life, he would periodically quit playing the guitar to go paint signs.
He liked sign painting as much as guitar playing, and for him, it was a good way to get away from all the excess of the jazz world and still make a good living. When jazz called him back, he always came, rested, refreshed, and ready to go again.

Woody Guthrie was also a musician/sign painter/writer/illustrator.

No aspiring writer needs to face a life of sacrifice and drudgery to stay alive.
There are plenty of writing jobs out there, but no one will hold your hand to go find them; that's up to the individual to go dig them up.

[Asphaltabc]

An office job might be a good place, there is the heat and the ac.
There is also a desk.