For those of us who still need to work a day job, for whatever reason, be it paying the mortgage, saving for childrens’ college, insurance coverage or finding your next perfect villian, writing around a day job can now and again give us a bit of envy for authors who can write full time. I know it happens to be….usually on Monday morning when I have to get up after a productive weekend and face traffic, a backlog of phone messages from the weekend that all start with “I know no one is there because it’s the weekend, but…..” followed by another one that comes in precisely at 8:00 a.m. asking why no one called back yet, along with the other day job adventures.

When I first started writing fiction (I have a few published non-fictions for people with disabilities) I made a commitment to myself to write 1,000 words a day. An author I have the utmost respect for had said that was a good base point and a friend of mine who does neuro-linguistic programming said that it takes 350 words to engage your brain to creative writing. So I went with that and it worked well for quite some time.

In the back of my mind, however, have always been two inspirations…the first is Danielle Steele. Waaayyyyy back in I guess the early 80’s one of her first books was made into a television movie. My mother had raved about her books from day one and while at that point I hadn’t read one, I was curious. I tuned in and the movie opened with her in a very elegant formal gown in the foyer of her San Francisco house and I immediately had images of sitting in a lovely, feminine room in a sheer negligee and matching robe, pale pink slippers with puffy feathers crowing the toes and writing a romance with a feathered pen. To me that was the epitome of the grace and poise that Ms. Steele had — at that time it was a great visual for me. It was something to aspire to except I didn’t write fiction at that time, I just read it - voraciously.

The other is a statement I’ve heard several times in my RWA chapter — a statement that is made to encourage our members to get going and stop messing around to avoid writing. It’s “Nora’s writing.” It’s a testament to Ms. Robert’s devotion to her craft and that it IS a business. Ms. Roberts inspires on a number of layers and this is one of the ones that speaks to me. Like her writing or not (which I am a huge fan) she is the epitome of professionalism and a position to aspire to. For me she is a complete inspiration and on my days off from the day job, I DO tell myself “Nora’s writing.” Maybe she is and maybe she isn’t, but it inspires me to get focused and going. Some day I will have the opportunity to thank her for helping me for getting my muse in gear.

Which gets me back to my topic for today — writing around a day job. I’m one of those authors who still needs to work the day job. I’ve been reading a number of articles about well know, very popular authors who have NY Times best sellers who also still work, at least part time, a day job. It makes me feel a little better about the fact I still need to do it. A bit. Knowing myself as well as I do, I do know if I had a job I really enjoyed I wouldn’t mind the day job so much. On my days off and at least one week each year on my vacation I devote myself to “full time” writing — i.e., 7-8 hours a day of writing. I sail along for the first 2 hours or so and then I find email beckons, the coffee pot, a room that needs to be cleaned, in general real life.

In an article in the February 2006 Romance Writers Report Lee Tobin McClain started out by making the statement “Being a writer and holding down a day job takes commitment, compromise–and just maybe, learning to live with dust bunnies.” In that one statement she put it all in perspectivve for me and at the same time validated some thoughts I’d been having.  I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself to keep up with the day job and write as close to full time as I can — and I got more than a few dust bunnies floating around. Of course, Molly doesn’t like the vacuum cleaner so I have a good reason for not writing, right?

Of course I do.

I don’t know about you, but when I put pressure on myself these wall like things come up. When I start to push myself to the exclusion of life — like going on a hike with friends, watching an old movie, reading a good book and, well, yes, vacuuming the dust bunnies, my writing starts to feel stale until I free up some mind space. In her article Ms. McClain talks about how different authors have different schedules for their writing and how each of us needs to find the pattern that works best for us. That was a combination “aha” and “duh” moment because I’d lost sight of what works best for me. I’m getting back to thinking that 1,000 words a day was a better paradigm for me. Although…Nano Write starts November 1 and this year I’ll be writing Michael’s Story from Jason’s Accord. Turns out Michael is pretty hot.

So a question for our readers and writers:

As a reader, do you read one book at a time, start to finish or do you maybe read one on your Palm while standing on line and other cozied up in bed at night?

And authors — do you write full time or around the day job?