Write a Novel While Working for a Living

by Bill Henderson @ Write A Better Novel

Hey, novelists, might as well face it. Reality for most of us, whether we’re published or not, is keeping those balls in the air.

It’s “working for a living”–meaning teaching, technical writing, tending bar, whatever–that will put food on the table. Unfortunately, maintaining the writing life as “Priority Number One” will always be a daily, monthly, yearly struggle.

If you’re able to make novel writing pay the bills, bless you & keep up the good work. For the rest of us, here’s a montage of fragments from comments I received on my last post “A Novelist’s Dilemma – To Teach or Not to Teach”. They are well worth reading in their entirety, and you can do that by clicking here.

These are front line dispatches from real novelists, all struggling, in one way or another, to make their peace with a double-duty life.

“Teaching doesn’t seem like that great an option any more, unless you really want to teach.”
Lee

Would I like to have more time to write? Of course… I take notebooks with me in my purse wherever I go… and I make sure to sit down and write at home for at least 30 minutes every day.
Whitney

…it doesn’t support me full-time. But if I could add some more, I could have my ideal life: making money from writing, playing piano a few hours a day for ME, lol.
spyscribbler

I don’t think it’s just teaching that sucks the creative energy out of writers, but any job that demands strong creative focus.
J.M. Strother

I solved the problem by becoming a technical writer. It keeps my writing skills honed, my editorial eye sharp, but requires very little creativity, so I still have that drive to create.
Angela

I’m working as a computer systems administrator now. This isn’t that great for my writing. Too interesting. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a problem if I didn’t also have two small children right now. I only seem to be able to do so many context shifts in a day.
Lee

…pay check and bennies are a big security blanket to shuck off. Particularly the health care package what with kids and getting older.
J.M. Strother

If your day job is at all meaningful, it’ll drain your creative juices to a certain degree. If your day job is completely meaningless, it may drain your soul.
patrick

How I survive as a novelist:

1. I didn’t marry money, but my husband has a good, steady income and a generous nature.

2. I have lived in the same VERY modest home for the past 20 years.

3. I teach fiction writing to adults at The Worcester Art Museum. A paycheck, however small, is validating… Teaching has kept me writing through some hard times, because I would have felt like a fraud encouraging my students to soldier on if I were not willing to do the same.

4. I won an artist grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Every state has grant money (at least at the moment!) available to individual artists. Every writer should look into how to apply.

Laurel King

[I] write when I can. Sneaking off during making supper to slap some words down. Or after my daughter has gone to bed, and all day on the lucky days when she’s gone to grandma’s. Not writing is what eats my soul. My job supports my life and me being able to have a computer at which to write and food which sustains my body. But writing supports my heart and soul.
asrai

Sometimes I think of the woman I read about who loved ultra-marathoning so much that, on family vacations, her husband and kids had to let her out, to run alongside the car, every 40 miles or so. I guess the truth is pretty simple: if you love writing fiction enough, you’ll find a way.

Apologies to my wonderful commentors for editing them. For the full version of each comment (including Laurel’s 5 and 6), click here.