How to Exploit Your 9–5 Before Starting Your Writing Career

Sure it can be tempting to throw in the towel of your normal 9–5, which puts the food in the fridge and keeps a roof over your head job for the illustrious career of being a writer, but there's one thing you should keep in mind before you do - 

The food in the fridge and the roof over your head. 

Well sure - that's two things, but the point is still the same. 

No matter how good of a writer you are, you will not be making a royalty check the very first week of your new writing career - or the second - or even the third.

Unless you started long before you cast aside the idea of your steady paycheck to join the world of authors.

So what should you do to make the most of your regular job before turning in your two weeks' notice? Let's get into it. 

Write While You Work

No this doesn't mean you should be pulling out your manuscript instead of doing the work you're getting paid to do - but well if you have the time and the ability- you should be using it.

Write on your break, write during lunch, and doodle your outline on a scrap piece of paper while you're waiting on hold. 

There are hundreds of ways you can be working on your novel throughout the day at most jobs, and when you do have the ability or the time to write you can make the most of it. 

I highly encourage you to at least finish your first raft before you decide to quit, then you have the hardest part out of the way and it won't take as long to start to get to the point where you might have an income from your writing. 

Save and Budget 

This one should be a little bit of a no-brainer, but before you take the leap off the deep end without knowing if you're going to be able to support yourself make sure you take as much as you can spare from your pay and save it for when you just might need it - like while you wait for those royalties to start trickling in. (and I do mean trickle) 

Network and Support 

Although things were a little bit different for me since I did not leave my job on my own accord. I had worked in the tourism industry and the pandemic shut us down hard. I was let go due to some issues with the company, but this didn't mean I didn't stay in contact with those I had worked with side by side for seven years.

When one of the assistant managers I had trained called me one day to ask how I was doing since we had both gone off to different directions, me to finish my degree and her to the other side of the country to find a job back home and to be with her parents - when I had told her that I was now a writing coach and was planning on getting my recent book traditionally publish, she let me know that she would be the first person to preorder my book and would support me on all of my social media. 

She's left more comments on my Facebook posts than my mother has.

There's no shame in telling your coworkers that you are writing a book, if you work in a healthy work environment then these people may rally behind you, maybe more than your own family in some cases.

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There are many things to consider before deciding to quit a steady job to pursue writing and everyone is at a different point in their lives so the decision is ultimately up to you and your situation.

Use your work time to set yourself up for success in your writing career, work on your book, network with those around you, save up so that you aren't in a pinch as soon as the paychecks stop and you can even use your day's off to take some writing classes while you wait. 

Now get back to work - or get back to writing - or maybe both. 

With love, 

B. King xo xo

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