I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the anti-work sentiment that seems to be burbling through the social consciousness lately. I’m not sure why it’s been on my mind, exactly. I have a day job that I’m very happy at, and my writing, farming, and personal life are scratching the rest of the itches of my own hierarchy of needs. Maybe I’m very lucky. Maybe there’s no maybe about that. #Gratitude. By all metrics, the apparent widespread dissatisfaction doesn’t affect me. But I can’t stop thinking about it.
So, maybe I should start with some definitions, to keep things clear. I’m NOT talking about the necessity of cutting ties with a truly toxic work environment. Nor am I talking about the false wisdom of grinding yourself into a physically and mentally broken husk in the name of “hustle.”
What I’m talking about is something more like finding balance between the necessities of funding the costs of life and finding meaningful fulfillment in our activities. Good, bad, or indifferent, the odds of writing alone doing the former along with the latter are going to be unrealistic.
So, even with the biggest of dreams and the most perfect manuscript, the day job is a reality. But is it something we need to run from? Is it worth approaching the day job as a necessary evil, a block in the calendar to be survived? Or is there a way to meet the day job on neutral, even positive ground, until we hit that publication jackpot?
What’s In a Day Job?
For most writers, the idea of being able to quit the day job carries a lot with it. The ability to leave a day job behind and devote oneself entirely to writing is one benchmark for having “made it.” The writer without a day job has produced work that earns them enough of a living to support them on its own. They don’t need to sell their time and effort away from their passion in the name of keeping lights on and bread on the table. It’s the glorious freedom of self-employed artistry, the perfect intersection of passion and financial compensation. This is what everyone strives for. Right?
It sounds heavenly. I could sure get behind the idea of throwing away my alarm clock, of rising with the sun and structuring my days around my current writing project. Of only being interrupted for such important authorial concerns as lunch with my agent or a meeting with my editor. From the outside, it seems the ultimate Prince and the Pauper trade.
But, what I propose here is a defense of the day job, an apology for the profession or employment that takes so much attention from the emerging author.
Financial Stability
This is the obvious benefit to being on someone else’s payroll. Even creatives who make sales tend to find their incomes sporadic and difficult to rely or budget on, especially early in their careers. Until your work is selling in a consistent enough volume, keeping a day job is the simple way to keep regular expected income coming in to cover the regular expected expenses of life.
This isn’t just a benefit for creative types. Side-hustlers may prefer their self-employed hustle, but a day job may be a “necessary evil” until the alternative gets off the ground floor financially and generates reliable and regular income.
Inspiration
Ok, hear me out. I may write speculative fiction, but I have definitively found inspiration for my writing at my day jobs over the years. I’ve borrowed attributes from coworkers to build characters. I’ve tweaked work situations into story seeds. And, yes, I’ve taken out workplace frustrations on characters. Admit it… you have, too.
As annoying as it can be to have to close out your manuscript document and head to the office or jobsite (or sign in to Teams, or whatever we’re all doing at this point…), having a day job is one way to inject perspective into your writing. So much of what I create is born from my very non-writerly professional life. Whether it is a coworker’s funny story from their weekend, drama over what department gets the next intern, or making up a story to explain the boss’s foul mood… there’s much creativity to be mined out of a work shift.
Distraction
You know the way ideas come like clockwork when we’re in exactly the right frame of mind? On a walk, in the shower, driving… or at work?
Depending on exactly what you do and how you do it, the motions of your day job may be the same kind of distraction from your creative work that leads to shower-like insights. This is more likely if you have a repetitive job, like in a warehouse or factory.
If your day job is more mental, you can still reap the distracting benefits if your day job is different enough from your creative pursuits. A day job can give your writer brain a chance to rest and recharge, the same way writing can be an escape from your day job. Just keep a notebook or index card handy.
Order and Boringness
I’ve written previously about the role of order in engaging with the chaos of creativity. Again, this may depend on your exact occupation and the demands that it places on you, but a day job can provide order and structure to the calendar that may actually free you creatively once you clock out. It isn’t hard to consider what happens when there is too much freedom in the calendar. It’s funny how a week’s “staycation” along with all of the tasks and projects you planned to tackle vanishes without a schedule.
Often, it’s easier to promise our time and energy to others than to ourselves. I don’t at all wish to suggest that we overdo that tendency, but sometimes not having all of our time to do exactly as we wish makes that which we do all the more precious, and therefore more likely for us to put to use instead of waffling in the mindset of “I’ve got time.”
Having a day job may not be as outwardly glamorous as having writing as a sole breadwinning profession, but the boring ordinariness of fitting a dream around the realities of life’s demands doesn’t have to be anathema to creativity or success in the arenas that really call your heart. Order and routine can be a massive boon to the kind of productive creativity that generates financial success. A day job can impose some of that from the outside.
But… what if my day job truly sucks?
Dysfunctional management, soul-sucking routines and duties, a schedule with inconsistent hours or a less-than-ideal shift. Maybe it’s a too-long commute, or obnoxious coworkers, or the pay/benefits aren’t meeting your needs.
Sometimes, for one reason or another, a particular day job isn’t worth staying at, and it’s time to make a change. And that’s absolutely fine. I’ll be the first to encourage you to make a tactical change that improves your situation, and I won’t defend chronically and willfully poor management.
What I would caution against is jumping without a parachute; the starving artist lifestyle isn’t so glamorous when you’re living it. Maybe you’re on the edge of profitability in your writing and have enough savings to bridge that gap. Or maybe you find a better day job opportunity that pays the bills more tolerably. How to improve your work life is a different topic altogether, and beyond the scope and focus of this blog, so I won’t belabor it any further here. But life is far too short to spend miserable, either at a poor job or without funding yourself materially. There are too many alternatives out there. Full-time creativity may be one.
What do you think?
Are you a writer or a creative like me, still holding down a day job that pays the bills? Are you “at peace” with it? Or do you scowl at the clock every minute you spend working the “necessary evil?” Have you taken the plunge to create full-time? If so, do you only write for your supper or do you supplement book sales with related activity like blogging, vlogging, running courses, or freelancing? This day-jobber would love to know how you make it happen!
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy this one, the very first post on this blog, about how to be a writer in real life. When it isn’t as easy to find the upsides of a day job, or a viable path to life as a stay-at-home writer, there are still ways to chase the dream.
Until next time, may the Muse be with you!
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