Treating it like a second job
Filed under Writing Journal on October 5, 2009
Tagged: productivity, Shattered Amulet
I began the process of dissolving my company earlier this summer. Goldbox Media Group incorporated back in June of 2006, and for the past three years, I poured time, money, and less tangible resources into the production of an online game. It was my second job.
The decision to quit that job was not an easy one. It meant swallowing my pride. It meant asking my family to shoulder a financial burden that I had promised they wouldn’t need to. It meant letting go of a dream.
I picked up an old dream I had let lie by the roadside. I wasn’t ready to fully embrace it yet, though. I’d been burned by dreams, including this one, and I needed some time to heal. My family needed some time.
I started writing again, in small chunks, but with regularity. A half-an-hour or forty-five minutes during my lunch. Sometimes 25 words a day. Sometimes 500. I reconnected with an old friend and, in time, he opened up to me once more. I discovered new and interesting things about him, fueling my enthusiasm for the relationship.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the average productivity of a “professional” writer is 1000 words a day. The manuscript for Shattered Amulet surpassed the 20k mark last month. Increasing my productivity to professional levels would make finishing a first draft by the end of the year a realistic goal, but requires a greater commitment of time on my part. No more playing computer games or watching TV during the week after the kids are in bed. I’d need to treat it like a second job.
Excuse me while I go fill out an application.
October 6th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
What…excuse me while I go fill out an application?? Is that it, is there anymore? Well, I’m most interested in the continuing story of this “second job” because I was fortunate enough to get a glimpse of the Shattered Amulet and it left me wanting more.
More please…
October 7th, 2009 at 6:40 am
Great post, Kameron. I had a similar realization a couple years ago. I started a part-time copywriting business with the hope of turning it into a full-time gig…which I hoped would give me more freedom to work on my fiction writing. I already had a full-time day job, so this was a nights-weekends thing. While I could find the work, I was more annoyed than happy because the “business” took time away from my fiction writing. And to make up that fiction time, I would’ve had to sacrifice time with my daughter and wife, and that was non-negotiable.
After some soul searching, I realized that if I wanted to be a commercially successful fiction writer, I had to treat my fiction writing like a business. So I dissolved the business and devoted that time to my fiction. Since then I’ve written two fantasy novels (both of which are being shopped around by my agent) and I’m currently working on a sci-fi novel. This “fiction business” is certainly not as lucrative as the copywriting business, but at least I’m living the dream without regrets.
October 14th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Sorry to hear about the dissolution.
But at least you got to live that dream for a while, even if it was not to fruition. It really makes you wonder what it’d be like if we lived in a world that was structured in a way so as to support people’s creativities — ya know, like Google and their 20% thing. Alas…
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