One of the biggest eyeroll moments in my writing life is when I tell someone I'm a writer and they ask what my 'real' job is. Or sometimes they phrase it slightly more palatable and ask what my 'day' job is.
Fuck off, writing is a real job, ignorant asswipe.
...is what I want to say. Instead, I smile and tell them politely that writing is, in fact, my day job.
Of course, that's not always the case. And while I don't want to downplay the importance of writing, especially for those of you that are trying to to turn it into a career, unfortunately we've got bills to pay. Which sometimes means working a job that has nothing to do with the writing dream to help support said dream.
I remember hiding behind the lathing machine as a CNC operator, furiously scribbling away on a scrap of lined paper I kept folded up in the pocket of my work pants. I remember secretly logging into my gmail as a secretary to email myself chunks of stories to recompile at home that night. Or popping out to my car on break while working at a research facility to chain smoke and type away on my laptop for fifteen minutes at a time.
We've gotta do what we've gotta do!
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When Your Job Inhibits Your Writing
Do you work a demanding job that doesn't allow you writing time? I'm not going to tell you to shirk your work to write because I don't want to get you in shit with your boss, but there are always ways to get things done if you have the determination.
Making use of breaks is the best way. For jobs that have set breaks, such as fifteen minutes every two hours and whatnot, this is great, because you can utilize it like a Pomodoro-type situation. Fifteen minutes? Writing sprint! See how many words you can get out, and then next break, try to beat it!
Keeping a notepad handy is always great too, in case you come up with an idea or a snippet of dialogue that you don't want to forget. I've worked jobs that were so mentally demanding that I wasn't able to really think about my stories in depth, so if I had a random thought I was terrified my focusing on my jobs would erase that awesome idea. Jobs that require less mental capacity allowed me to think my plotlines and conversations to death, so I was less likely to forget the breakthroughs I had. So if you can, keep a notepad or even a piece of paper in your pocket or something so that you have access to it no matter what you're doing. (Safety permitting, of course!)
When Your Job Takes Up Too Much Time
If you're someone that works a lot of hours, or has a long commute, it can feel like there's just no time left in the day to write. In response to that, I say, make fucking time!
Long commute? Try dictation software or just record audio on your phone to get your ideas down. Alternatively, you could use your commute to listen to your writing via text-to-speech. I find it's easier to pick out clunky sentences or typos that way because the robot voice will read it phonetically.
