Writing is not a nine to five job.
There are many jobs that allow you to go in each morning, do a day’s work, and then go home in the evening without giving your job a second thought.
Writing is not one of them.
When you’re a writer, you’re always planning or composing in your mind, regardless of what else you may be doing. As an example, I conceived of this very post while driving my car. (In fact, I’ve composed many posts while driving–although I never type and drive.)
When you’re a writer, it doesn’t matter if you’ve “clocked out” for the day if your brain is still grappling with whatever it was you were working on. You can’t turn creativity off and on like that.
If you’re looking for a profession that allows you to earn money but won’t invade your private time, writing is probably not it.
There are plenty of jobs where you stand behind a register, collect money, and then go home. Or stand on assembly line…or something similar. Sure, you might think about how a customer or colleague treated you that day after you’ve left the job, but you aren’t actually doing anything that contributes to the work when you’re not clocked in.
Writing is not like one of those jobs. You can’t clock out and turn off your ideas.
If you’re a writer, you likely think about your writing a lot of the time while you do other things. I might even say, you think about writing most of the time. It doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re actually doing. Ideas come to you at the most inconvenient times–the middle of the night, while you’re driving, while you’re…
The nature of writing is also why it’s so hard to measure the actual effort that writing takes. Should you really count the inspiration that comes to you while you’re driving down the road or in the middle of the night as part of your work?
If you want to be truly accurate about tracking your time, you do need to count some of these inspiration times as work times. But, can you define when those times actually begin and end?
Are you able to put your writing aside at the end of each day? How do you measure your creative effort?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
11 responses so far ↓
1 Claire Wagnerc // Jun 28, 2011 at
Laura, this is why I’ve often resisted charging by the hour for my writing work. I remember an old boss talking about how important he could see that my subconscious was in my work. He could tell that problems would get parked there – almost “idling” like a car – and I would keep going back to them in between other tasks until I felt I had a solution. You’ve rightly pointed out that a lot of our work is not done with a pen or a keyboard. Thanks for this post!
2 Claire Wagner // Jun 28, 2011 at
Well, that’s a first! I misspelled my own name in a comment! I’ve been at Starbuck’s too long today already…
3 Silvina // Jun 28, 2011 at
Laura,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! The more blogs and pages I read about professional writers the more alike I think we are. Us, translators, usually don’t follow the 9-5 rule. I’ve found myself jumping off my bed in the middle of the night because I finally decided for a specific term I’ve been researching that same day. Now, with the blog-writing trend in my industry, I also have to think about possible topics for my blog. My mind is always running… in 2 (and sometimes 3) different languages!
4 Laura Spencer // Jun 28, 2011 at
Claire, What you’re describing sounds VERY familiar. (P.S. The name thing happens to the best of us.)
Silvina–I have to confess that I’m not familiar with a translator’s job, but from what I do know it does not seem like a 9 to 5 job either. In fact, I can’t imagine what it would be like to have ideas running through my head in more than one language…
5 Matt Keegan // Jun 29, 2011 at
Laura, I’m almost always writing even when I don’t have my fingers flying across the keyboard or am taking pen to paper.
My “next story” seems to always be lurking, with an idea for a new feature ready to emerge. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it does show that we’re often “working” at all hours of the day.
6 Kate Frishman // Jun 29, 2011 at
I read the other day about a fiction writer who has been very successful with ebooks, and just signed a big contract with a publisher. Unfortunately, I can’t think of her name. She said it takes her two to four weeks to write a book, but it’s usually in her head for a year. By the time she puts pen to paper she knows the whole story by heart.
7 Lucy Smith // Jun 30, 2011 at
Heh, on many occasions I’ve got out of a long hot shower and suddenly had that perfect headline come to me. I almost think I should keep pen and paper in the bathroom so I don’t have to dry and dress as quickly as I can before I forget!
8 Janet // Jul 2, 2011 at
Like Lucy, my creativity usually comes when I’m not in front of the keyboard. I find myself putting a piece together in my head while I’m on a long walk, in the shower or driving. The last time that happened, I was on a two-day drive so I turned on the voice recorder on my phone and dictated the story, the way I used to do occasionally when I worked in newspapers. Really helped me cut down the fluff!
9 Laura Spencer // Jul 2, 2011 at
Matt, that is so true. Often those ideas come at the most inconvenient times (driving, or trying to sleep, etc.)
Kate Frishman–I wish I had time to write all the books that are in my head. 🙂
Lucy Smith! LOL. I’ve heard of people keeping a pen and paper on their nightstand so they can write down ideas that come to them during the night or as they are waking up.
Jane, I actually think that sometimes it’s good to get away from the keyboard. If I’m stuck I’ve often found it helpful to get up and move about. I love the dictation idea and should do it more often.
10 Lee Rowley // Jul 11, 2011 at
Laura,
Well said. One of the things I struggled with most fiercely when I transitions to full-time freelancing was the idea of “putting in my eight hours.” It’s not even eight, really – six hours of focused productivity a day generates more income than I could possibly need. But getting in six hours of productivity (read: billable hours) is not like putting in six hours at a day job. There are video conferences, proposals, collections, the kid, the wife, the television… and, of course, naps. Six hours can easily take up 14+ hours in a freelancer’s world.
Anyway, I appreciated the post. Look forward to reading more of your work!
Lee
11 Sarah Loves Ebooks // Jul 12, 2011 at
Whether you are a new writer or an established author wishing to gauge reaction to a final draft, self- publishing your work and distributing it free of charge on reputable websites like obooko.com can be a positive way to ‘test the water’ and receive feedback from members. What’s more, because your book will be in digital format you can make corrections and upload new versions of your ebook whenever you wish.