On and Beyond Labor Day: Make Your Day Job Support Your Writing

Yes, you can work a day job and be a creative writer. 

Once, during a job interview, the interviewer confessed that she had Google-ed me.

Based on what she’d found, she asked if, as a creative writer, I actually had time or space for ‘real’ work—including the job to which I was applying.

This wasn’t friendly small talk between two just-met strangers.

Instead, everything about this woman told me that she believed I could and would shortchange the part of my life that mattered (day job) by indulging in a parallel life of creative writing and teaching.

From her tone to her body language, this woman couldn’t have been rude-er. Also, she couldn’t have been wrong-er.

On Labor Day: Being A Writer with a Day Job

In the moment, I was too gob-smacked to retort or speak my truth. But later that night, I mentally drafted what I should have said, starting with this:

“For the past 25 or more years, it’s because I work a busy day job that I can be a creative writer. And vice versa.”

Also, I should have mentioned that being creative or reflective writers makes us into empathetic colleagues, and how good empathy makes for good workplaces.

Or I should have cited history and statistics that prove that, from Harper Lee to Agatha Christie, many biggie creative writers have worked in all sorts of roles and industries and jobs.

So on Labor Day, if you’re a writer with a day job, let me assure you that your writing and your job don’t have to detract from each other.

What a Day Job Brings to Our Writing

Money:  A recent Authors Guild study of 5,000+ creative writers (memoir, fiction, essays, poetry, drama et al) showed that, based on book sales alone, writers make approximately $3,000 per year. If you’ve figured out a way to live on that amount of money, good for you (gas prices, anyone?)! But without a roof over your head and food in your fridge, you will not write. Also, collection agencies make very, very poor creative mentors.

Creative freedom:  When the bills are paid, we are not as susceptible to the fads and fashions of the publishing industry. We can say ‘no’ to those offers or edits that do not align with our own writing mission—or why we write. When the bills are paid, we can write what really matters to us.

Time and project management: A day job gives us dual experiences in (a) setting and meeting deadlines and (b) planning and managing a roster of projects. Both of these skills will support and advance our creative lives.

Tenacity: There really are no free lunches. So the tenacity and problem-solving skills we learn and practice at work carry over into our writing lives. A writing project has stalled? An editor or agent is ghosting? We need to be good at defusing disagreements, plotting next steps and developing a workable contingency plan.

Where you work, this Labor Day Weekend, I hope you’ll find time for writing. Also, I hope you’ll take a moment to be grateful for what your day job gives you and, by default, what it gives to your writing.

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See all my writers tips posts and writing workshops at my author website. Or check out my instructional writing book, “Writer with a Day Job” (Penguin Random House).