Nearly everybody has a full-time job that supports their writing. Cash to pay a mortgage, or make car payments, or buy book editing comes from traditional employment for many of us. Authors invest in their creative work with their jobs.
And when you lose a job, or quit one, or are on the hunt? You might think of it like a way to invest something else in your author career. For a short period, or maybe a little longer while, you have your time.
Authors without jobs might see the lack of cash flow as something of an opportunity. It’s never good to fall short of meeting the bills, but if you’re making do until something else comes along, the open time can propel your writing. It’s better than developing a more serious Instagram habit, or sports book betting on Fanduel.
You might be laid off and now drawing unemployment benefits. While you search for a new gig, consider if you’ve also got a shot at building a new work habit. If you come away from the freedom of job time with a new practice of writing an hour a day, that practice can sustain you, both during unemployment as well as afterward. You might have to drive ride-share, so creating everyday can help you salvage some dignity.
You might also be the writer who’s left a job for a sabbatical of your own design. You get to set the timing on setting aside the job-job, as I call any work where a paycheck is waiting on a regular basis. “I’ll take a few months off and get that book completed,” you might say. If you’re in tech, this is probably easier. Or sales, where drive, gumption, and your ease with people are all your ready resources.
You might already be on the path for your new position in the next job-job, but your start date is a few weeks or so into the future. Now you have a deadline to form creative habits, a little like a sculptor who’s modeling with a clay that will dry. Deadlines are great for creativity.
Don’t sweep away your time
More than 30 years ago, I left a job-job to work for myself. I didn’t change much about what I was doing; it was still writing, just arranging the assignments myself as a freelancer. I left that job-job because I wanted more time to finish a book. Working for yourself is one way to do that. Just be careful not to start a company and sweep aside your time that you wanted for your book.
Early in my training for coaching authors, I studied with Eric Maisel. He’s written many books about the psychology around creativity. Books like The Van Gogh Blues, or Staying Sane in the Arts, are among his 16 works. Maisel also has travel books for writers visiting San Francisco and Paris, so he’s got range.
He’s written those books by doing something called Protecting Your Space. Here’s how it doesn’t work. Ready to write, you check email first. Hours later, the emails are humming and the writing hasn’t begun. Or, your spouse knows you’re working from home and just has a few things you can help out with. They text you and your reply turns into a chat. You’ve lost your spark, and feel a little frustration. Maybe the local Internet provider is digging trenches in front of your house. You can’t get a lick of work done, although you might have taken a laptop or a notebook someplace else.
“You didn’t protect your writing space very well, did you?”
With that phrase, Maisel reminds us that our space is something both around us and within the tick of the clock. “Your writing space is a literal space and it’s also a metaphoric space,” he says. “Both need protection; the first with explicit rules, the second with strong intentions.”
If you can manage a leap toward optimism during a time where you’re between jobs, developing the skills to protect your space is a noble mission. “Protect your writing space with a talisman, amulet, icon, or shotgun,” Maisel says. A security pledge, ground rules, and regular writing in your space will also help.
You’ll be more than unemployed or laid off. You’ll be working on your book, once you can tap the advantages and protect your space.
