Writing With a Full-Time Job: Is It Amazing or Confusing?
Writing with a full-time job — more specifically, putting out one book a year with a full-time job.
The idea comes from a social media post that I saw the other day. It made me think, because the idea of somebody having a full-time job and writing one book a year was described as amazing and confusing, and they started to question as to whether the quality of the book would be sacrificed because of the balancing between writing the book and maintaining the day job. I don't publish one book a year at the moment. I haven't published in several years (something I do feel very guilty about, but that's besides the point).
Although I did write something in response to this person's post, I thought it would be a good idea to use this space to go into a little bit more depth in terms of the discussion. I do want to add that this is in no way criticism of the person who wrote the post, because they were simply expressing their own thoughts and experience of the sentiment — and that is absolutely fine. In fact, their own thoughts made me think, and that is a good thing.
I understand the sentiment
I understand where the sentiment of having a full-time job may sacrifice the quality of your work comes from. Working itself is mentally draining, and therefore, by the time you get home, you don't have the same time and energy that you may have if you were writing full-time. However, the reality for many writers is that we do need a full-time job to supplement the writing. If we are lucky, we can begin to transition to part-time writing, and then full-time writing. It just so happens that everybody has different definitions of success, and different definitions of what it means to be a part-time or full-time writer
Moreover, the work day being draining, and potentially taking away from the quality of the writing time, is something that must be accounted for as a writer. As such, whether or not writing a book a year is possible or not depends largely on the author; how they manage their time and their process.
What it means to write with a day job
The first thing to consider would be how long a writer needs to be able to spend writing. What I mean by this is, some writers need hours of uninterrupted time to be able to get their thoughts onto the page — whereas I prefer to work in smaller chunks of time. I also like to dedicate my attention to different tasks for that time. For example, I might dedicate 20 minutes of time to drafting, and then another day between 20 minutes to editing. I can then allocate these tasks to different times of the week. When I feel as though I may have more or less energy, I adapt accordingly. As an extension of that, there is something to be said for having multiple projects at different stages of the writing process. Not only is that making sure that you are writing new content — new books — continuously building a structured system, but it is also allowing for flexibility and an awareness that makes writing easier. For example, in terms of my own process, this would explain why I am blogging so much recently. I know it is something that requires some deep thought and relies heavily on my own experiences and my own thoughts. Therefore, it is relaxing as well as challenging, but not overwhelming (it makes sense in my head). Planning, drafting, and editing require completely different levels of energy. So, my decision to focus on blogging is — at the crux of it — a way of managing my time and energy, but also making sure that I'm maintaining my writing routine. (Hopefully producing something that somebody likes to read in the process).
Furthermore, I do believe that the full-time job does carve out time where I need to prioritise myself and my writing. I wouldn't get this if I were to write full-time, because I would have a whole day stretched out ahead of me, and I have a feeling that I would end up pontificating and wasting the time. Whereas, with a full-time job, I know that I must use the time wisely. In that way, I would say that dedicating the whole day to writing in this instance would be counterintuitive. So, there are definitely pros and cons to having a day job. In the sense that you may have less energy in the short term, but there is a necessity for dedicated time and planning in the long run. This to say is that I am aware that my day job does drain me on a day-to-day basis, and therefore I have to allocate different sections of time to different skills within the writing process so that I am still being productive. I'm also not sacrificing the quality of my work in order to make sure that a piece is done, despite feeling exhausted after work. It can make the articulation of deeper and more analytical thoughts more difficult, but that doesn't mean that books produced are inherently less complex or nuanced.
Again, it comes down to the writer's process and how efficiently they manage the time, and when they allocate certain tasks. As another example, if I were to do some world-building for a piece that I am writing, I would know that that would require more cognitive function from myself than writing a blog post. Therefore, I would dedicate that time to a day where I've had the time to decompress and relax. That does not mean that the world building will be done in one go; it will be a matter of over several weeks. In between that, I will be editing or drafting something else.
Finding your process
So far, I have dismantled this into a practicality assessment, but it's also worth acknowledging the aspects of the writing that you enjoy the most. For example, I'm a big believer in getting the writing down and then editing it later, because I prefer to have something to edit over a blank page.
Another thing to note is that, once you have written a book, you know what to expect, and the process becomes more streamlined. This is where the administration inside of being an author comes in. Like many writers, I enjoy writing my pieces but then I realise there are other administration tasks that come with it — such as designing covers, making sure all of the paperwork is completed. I find it quite overwhelming, because I don't want to do something wrong; I have no intention of doing something incorrectly. As a result, I do need to dedicate the administration tasks to days where I have more brain space. But, again, it comes down to understanding your process. Once you have been through the process, you know the aspects of the process that you enjoy, and the aspects of the projects that you struggle with most. Once you have been through the process, you may have ways of adapting to make it easier for you the next time. As I've suggested above, the parts that you enjoy and struggle with are equally important. For those luckily enough to be in the position, it may mean that you delegate parts of the process to another person. Which is great if you can afford that — and have the capacity to do that — because you can focus on the other aspects of the writing process However, what I'm describing here is assuming that you have to do everything yourself.
From what I have written, you can see that even when I'm not physically writing, I'm thinking about writing and the writing process. Therefore, every pocket of time that I have described comes into producing writing that is not sacrificed in quality over time. As I mentioned, editing is a large part of this, because we may have a session where we find that the writing is weak. Yet, when we go back to it later, we can better articulate what you are trying to say. To understand your writing process would allow you to do this much easier, and it allows you to inject the same energy that you may do if you were to write full-time. All this to say, it comes down to what you do with the time, and how much focus goes into that time. You're writing a book to share your ideas, your own insights so make sure that you use the time to do what is useful to you and your process.
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