A Writing Career While Holding a Job

The biggest obstacle to getting writing done is having to do so on the side.  If any of the books could break out enough for me to be able to survive off it, the rest would be much less of a problem as I would write during the day.  However, when a person has to go to work, place all their mental and physical energy toward that, and then, only after they've gotten home from a full day on the job, can they START working on the day's writing... That's the number one reason most writing doesn't get done.  That and procrastination, but that's another blog entry.

So how does one get past this?  I've been lucky enough to have a job at home, so at least I don't need to deal with a commute.  But by the time I can begin, my eyes are tired of staring at a computer screen, and I just need a nap.  In addition, my girlfriend's getting home and I can't tell her not to make noise, plus I want to spend some time with her.  So how to answer this dilemma?

My own case is unique as I work on a deadline transcribing video files.  While I'm at work, I can only be concentrating on that.  But I get to choose when to work.  So I'll generally do my mindless transcribing late at night so I can write while Jamie's at work.  When she gets home, she wants to take a nap, so that gives me a time limit of about 30 minutes from the time she comes in the door.  I'll often then get about another hour when she's doing something else, as is happening right now.

But in the days when I had a normal 9 to 5, I had to slip it in a little more cleverly.  Mostly, I made sure to have my laptop with me so that I could take advantage of any moment I had.  Is it slow at work?  Get a little writing in.  Lunch break?  Get some writing in.  Fifteen minute breaks are for figuring out what I'm going to write.  And then in the evenings I had a specific amount of time set aside to get my writing done that was understood by all around me.

Commutes were time to think through a story and figure out what's going to happen so by the time I began writing, it was simply a matter of putting down on paper what I had already thought out.  I once came up with a whole book on the way to Vegas.

Of course there are the weekends, too.  But regardless of when you have time to write, the most important thing to do is determine a block of time ahead of when you'll write; a time when you're not allowed to procrastinate or do anything else.  That's writing time, and it's precious.

A Long List of Projects

I have a problem.  And that problem is that I have too many interests and too many projects I want to do.  I also have a panicked sense of mortality.  Realizing that we all only have so much time to live, I have a constant sense of a clock ticking down.  I feel like a ship that's sinking, and every story, every invention, every game, every character I will ever create, is a passenger on that ship.  And once I go beneath the waves, it'll be over.  I feel responsible for all of them, and I feel a need to get them all out.

With self-publishing and print on demand allowing me to make these ideas a reality, they are all flowing out, and I'm overwhelmed with self-imposed responsibilities.  This year, the number of projects I'm working on have sneaked up on me, and I'm having to come to terms with just how much I've put on my shoulders.

Here's the list of projects I'm trying to get done this year:

Wanted, Foul, and Worthy (The Relic Worlds novella)

Tales and Lives of the Vietnam War (My non-fiction book)

A Borrowed Life (The novel about my cousin in the '80s)

Pitch a non-fiction book for traditional publication

Write the next part of my Star Wars fan fiction (The size of a novella)

RPG Storytime "Star Wars" (A huge series of videos)

Catch up on a bunch of the gaming videos from before

Create a Relic Worlds RPG

Start two podcasts: Relic Worlds and Bandwagon Games

Make Command Combat: Civil War 2nd edition

Go after writing and directing agents

All that on top of the regular promotions I'm doing for what I've already made.  Hopefully 2019 will turn out to be a productive year.