This last year has been tough for me. For any that might follow me on facebook or twitter, you might notice that I often discuss my job as being the “evil day job.” It’s a term a lot of authors have for their fulltime jobs, that they say with loving affection. That was not the case for me. My day job really was evil. My boss sucked, he was demanding and overbearing. I was asked to do tasks I absolutely hated, and when I voiced my opinion I was slapped down. Even worse, every coworker I liked has slowly being leaving the company, some voluntary and some not, leaving me with no coworkers I really got along with either.
But that all changed in an instance. I lost my evil day job. No longer is that evil in my life anymore. And I am trying to take this as a sign for the good. I’m not upset to lose the job. As I mentioned above I didn’t like it and I’ve been debating quitting for years. (I’m not exaggerating, I started making plans to quit over two and a half years ago, but there was always some reason to delay).
Now that I have this free time I really want to take advantage of it. I want to use this time to reinvent myself. And I’m going to start by reinventing myself as a fulltime writer. It’s the only thing I’ve ever really wanted to do. Since I was four years old I’ve wanted to be a writer, but as I got older I realized writing is a very hard way to pay the bills. Like I assume many others have done, after college I got a job in a field I didn’t love but it paid the bills, I worked my way up (a little bit at least), but the whole time it was never really my passion. It was the easy way to go. My thought was it was only a temporary fix until I got my writing up to a level that could sustain me.
But now that I’m removed from it I see that was never going to happen. My day job drained so much of my energy I couldn’t do all the writing and promoting I really wanted to. I would come home most nights so tired I couldn’t lift my head to do anything else. I would fall asleep on the couch more nights than my bed. And even the weekends were a bust, since I needed them to recover from the week. And it clearly wasn’t all that safe either. Considering I was not only let go from this job, but had been in the process of being laid off from my previous evil day job for over a year, I don’t know that the job market is that safe for anyone. But now I’m starting to see that maybe all these near misses and almost layoffs, and even complete layoffs were the universes way of telling me that path was not right for me.
This fourth of July I’ve decided to declare my own independence. Independence from the demanding and debilitating normal work structure. For the next year I’m going to focus on writing. I’m going to make becoming a fulltime author my primary focus. I won’t be able to go that long without a job, but I’m hoping to get an easy going on job, that doesn’t take as much time or energy. It won’t pay as much, I know that, but hopefully I’ll be able to make up the difference in my writing.
It will take at least six months to a year to see any progress in my writing career, so I am determined to dedicate at least that long to my writing career, to at least see what I can accomplish. I know it will be hard. The first few months especially, until I start seeing some progress, but I am determined to give it a try.
I have already started working towards this goal, by submitting more books in the first three months this year than I did all last year. And since ending my evil day job I’ve finished two more and pushed them out of the nest. I don’t have a ton of other completed works, so this month will be more a building month, but I have a lot of plans and ideas. I also plan to blog and promote more. Look forward to seeing my name around a lot more.
I often look out over my life and say I don’t have any regrets. And I don’t really. But I know down deep in my heart, if I don’t write fulltime for at least some of my life, I will regret it. And I’m not willing to let that happen. I need to do this, for my sanity, for my life, and for everyone else out there that has a dream and doesn’t think they can follow it. I am. And so can you.
So many times over the last seven years that I’ve been writing I’ve caught myself saying, I’d do that with my writing career if I had the time, or oh I could do that, if I had a month off. By making this change I’m going to give myself that time to explore I’ve always wanted. And I really hope you’ll all come along with me. I’m going to try my absolute best to keep you all appraised of my progress, by blogging here at least once a week. I’m also be tweeting about my progress on the hashtag #pathtofulltimewriter, you can follow all my struggles and tribulations with the hashtag.
I’m very new at this, and I am open and interested in any advice that anyone can give me. From how to best handle my business taxes, to where to find readers and what types of stories you’d like to see. I’m open to any and all comments and feedback to help make this dream a reality. I hope if you have any, you’ll leave it for me in the notes, or send it to me through the contact me link.
And always I will appreciate any help you can offer. Retweet my books, blogs or contests. Recommend a book to a friend or post a review online. Any and all help will be appreciated. Right now every sale counts, and every friend counts even more. Thank you each and everyone of you that has supported over the years. I value you all.
But that all changed in an instance. I lost my evil day job. No longer is that evil in my life anymore. And I am trying to take this as a sign for the good. I’m not upset to lose the job. As I mentioned above I didn’t like it and I’ve been debating quitting for years. (I’m not exaggerating, I started making plans to quit over two and a half years ago, but there was always some reason to delay).
Now that I have this free time I really want to take advantage of it. I want to use this time to reinvent myself. And I’m going to start by reinventing myself as a fulltime writer. It’s the only thing I’ve ever really wanted to do. Since I was four years old I’ve wanted to be a writer, but as I got older I realized writing is a very hard way to pay the bills. Like I assume many others have done, after college I got a job in a field I didn’t love but it paid the bills, I worked my way up (a little bit at least), but the whole time it was never really my passion. It was the easy way to go. My thought was it was only a temporary fix until I got my writing up to a level that could sustain me.
But now that I’m removed from it I see that was never going to happen. My day job drained so much of my energy I couldn’t do all the writing and promoting I really wanted to. I would come home most nights so tired I couldn’t lift my head to do anything else. I would fall asleep on the couch more nights than my bed. And even the weekends were a bust, since I needed them to recover from the week. And it clearly wasn’t all that safe either. Considering I was not only let go from this job, but had been in the process of being laid off from my previous evil day job for over a year, I don’t know that the job market is that safe for anyone. But now I’m starting to see that maybe all these near misses and almost layoffs, and even complete layoffs were the universes way of telling me that path was not right for me.
This fourth of July I’ve decided to declare my own independence. Independence from the demanding and debilitating normal work structure. For the next year I’m going to focus on writing. I’m going to make becoming a fulltime author my primary focus. I won’t be able to go that long without a job, but I’m hoping to get an easy going on job, that doesn’t take as much time or energy. It won’t pay as much, I know that, but hopefully I’ll be able to make up the difference in my writing.
It will take at least six months to a year to see any progress in my writing career, so I am determined to dedicate at least that long to my writing career, to at least see what I can accomplish. I know it will be hard. The first few months especially, until I start seeing some progress, but I am determined to give it a try.
I have already started working towards this goal, by submitting more books in the first three months this year than I did all last year. And since ending my evil day job I’ve finished two more and pushed them out of the nest. I don’t have a ton of other completed works, so this month will be more a building month, but I have a lot of plans and ideas. I also plan to blog and promote more. Look forward to seeing my name around a lot more.
I often look out over my life and say I don’t have any regrets. And I don’t really. But I know down deep in my heart, if I don’t write fulltime for at least some of my life, I will regret it. And I’m not willing to let that happen. I need to do this, for my sanity, for my life, and for everyone else out there that has a dream and doesn’t think they can follow it. I am. And so can you.
So many times over the last seven years that I’ve been writing I’ve caught myself saying, I’d do that with my writing career if I had the time, or oh I could do that, if I had a month off. By making this change I’m going to give myself that time to explore I’ve always wanted. And I really hope you’ll all come along with me. I’m going to try my absolute best to keep you all appraised of my progress, by blogging here at least once a week. I’m also be tweeting about my progress on the hashtag #pathtofulltimewriter, you can follow all my struggles and tribulations with the hashtag.
I’m very new at this, and I am open and interested in any advice that anyone can give me. From how to best handle my business taxes, to where to find readers and what types of stories you’d like to see. I’m open to any and all comments and feedback to help make this dream a reality. I hope if you have any, you’ll leave it for me in the notes, or send it to me through the contact me link.
And always I will appreciate any help you can offer. Retweet my books, blogs or contests. Recommend a book to a friend or post a review online. Any and all help will be appreciated. Right now every sale counts, and every friend counts even more. Thank you each and everyone of you that has supported over the years. I value you all.
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