are you a better writer with or without a day job?

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i cant decide. either way i tend to work mostly in the night so if i have to get up for work then its more tiring. so im a more alert writer without a day job.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 6 August 2004 17:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i meant, i tend to *write* mostly in the night.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 6 August 2004 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Some thirdhand advice I got recently was, if I really want to concentrate on my writing, I need to get a dayjob that doesn't involve writing, since I wear out my writing muscles working on the lame shit I get paid for.

― Huck, Friday, 6 August 2004 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

ditto.

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 6 August 2004 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

But I think having a day job makes me write more quickly, because I don't have any time to put it off really.

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 6 August 2004 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

i used to like working shitty jobs in the day just so my mind could wonder and think of more exciting things that might come in handy for writing later.

working in the day has made me write faster, but im not sure, if thats for the better or not. i like to think its just stopped me from over rewriting, editing and subbing myself but then it might just be making me rush things.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 6 August 2004 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to do all my writing at work, and now that I don't have a job I find it much harder to get motivated. (well, i watch a baby all day, so i kinda have a job, but not a job that I go to and get paid for.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 6 August 2004 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Without, without, without. Actually, I think the ideal would be to work for three or four hours a day, in some non-writing capacity -- just enough to create a sense of order and movement, and fend off that thing where you lie in bed all day watching television and "thinking" about what you're "about" to write. But yeah, I've got a copywriting job for the summer, and it's taken my fiction production down from 30-50 pages a month (while working maybe 10hrs/week at a record store and, admittedly, being required to produce at least 10-20 every few weeks) to pretty much hardly anything.

― nabiscothingy, Friday, 6 August 2004 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Let me revise that: how about three or four hours, three or four days a week.

― nabiscothingy, Friday, 6 August 2004 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

My dream is to someday make a serious living as a writer and just work at a bookstore or something. oh well.

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 6 August 2004 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Cutest thing ever: I learned a few months back that Steve Erickson, well after he had what could be considered a successful writing "career," worked in a comic book store (i.e. exactly where you'd think Steve Erickson would work).

― nabiscothingy, Friday, 6 August 2004 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

with!... otherwise I end up with far, far, far too much time to stew about and get drunk and smoke a lot, and rewrite drafts that are perfectly fine, and play with meself, and clean the kitchen, and make pasta from scratch, and call some chick that I haven't seen in three years, write another paragraph, drink more, fall asleep, wake up feeling guilty, decide I can't be bothered to write because I'm 'in the wrong space' and repeat.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Friday, 6 August 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

With, easily. The dayjob covers my expenses and allows for enough typing time to get some ideas down on the page anyway so that work elsewhere flows more easily. It's a perfect balance for me, it will not be so for everyone.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 6 August 2004 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

... is what I find myself doing right now, unemployed.

x-post.

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 6 August 2004 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Send something out for an edit, a good response may give you enough spark to renew your interest.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Friday, 6 August 2004 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I work 2-3 days a week, full work days. I like the arrangement.

― dleone (dleone), Friday, 6 August 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't write. But as far as musical creativity, I get jack shit done with a day job. You'd think the fact that I do nothing all day long would at least force me to write lyrics or something, but nope. And when I get home I'm too tired to actually get anything creative done. When I was unemployed, I would get bored enough to actually be motivated to go record and play guitar and stuff.

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Friday, 6 August 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm working on it j e r e m y.

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 6 August 2004 20:17 (twenty-one years ago)

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