Yesterday I left my day job.
Which, considering I'm a contractor and that I'd been there for nearly two years, isn't that big of a deal in and of itself. The important point is that I did it by choice, that I'd been planning to do it at this point in my life for a very long time, and that I have no plans to look for anything to replace my IT day job with another.
Or, to put it another way, my full time job description for the foreseeable future is "writer".
Obviously there are many ways in which this isn't a sensible or even a very sane thing to do. We're in the middle of an interminable global recession, the ice caps are melting and punk is almost certainly dead. Things have been going well for my burgeoning writing career these last couple of years, but with the Angry Robot deal now over, I'd be lying if I said I have much in the way of an income.
Then again, this isn't something I've done lightly. I've always wanted to be a writer, and I strongly believe that life is too short to spend it not doing the things that are most important to you. I've been planning for an awfully long time so that one day I'd have the opportunity to do this, and it's become clearer and clearer that I've taken things as far as I can around full time work. I've completed two novels in the last couple of years, and it's left me hardly any time to do any other writing, let alone have anything as luxurious as a life. It's been apparent for a long time that something has to give. And now it has.
What happens now then? Well, first things first, I'm having a short holiday, while I can still afford such extravagances. After that, November will be mostly taken up with research, planning and conferencing, which means World Fantasy in Brighton and Thought Bubble in Leeds. Then in December I start my new novel, hopefully get back to the book I drafted before Crown Thief, War For Funland, and perhaps dig into some currently-secret projects that I'm nearly ready to move forward with.
So, hey, full time writing. It's a thing, all right.
Deep breath...
Which, considering I'm a contractor and that I'd been there for nearly two years, isn't that big of a deal in and of itself. The important point is that I did it by choice, that I'd been planning to do it at this point in my life for a very long time, and that I have no plans to look for anything to replace my IT day job with another.
Or, to put it another way, my full time job description for the foreseeable future is "writer".
Obviously there are many ways in which this isn't a sensible or even a very sane thing to do. We're in the middle of an interminable global recession, the ice caps are melting and punk is almost certainly dead. Things have been going well for my burgeoning writing career these last couple of years, but with the Angry Robot deal now over, I'd be lying if I said I have much in the way of an income.
Then again, this isn't something I've done lightly. I've always wanted to be a writer, and I strongly believe that life is too short to spend it not doing the things that are most important to you. I've been planning for an awfully long time so that one day I'd have the opportunity to do this, and it's become clearer and clearer that I've taken things as far as I can around full time work. I've completed two novels in the last couple of years, and it's left me hardly any time to do any other writing, let alone have anything as luxurious as a life. It's been apparent for a long time that something has to give. And now it has.
What happens now then? Well, first things first, I'm having a short holiday, while I can still afford such extravagances. After that, November will be mostly taken up with research, planning and conferencing, which means World Fantasy in Brighton and Thought Bubble in Leeds. Then in December I start my new novel, hopefully get back to the book I drafted before Crown Thief, War For Funland, and perhaps dig into some currently-secret projects that I'm nearly ready to move forward with.
So, hey, full time writing. It's a thing, all right.
Deep breath...
Congratulations and best of luck!
ReplyDeleteHere's to blue skies on the horizon - congratulations on becoming a full time writer, and good luck!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!!! Good luck and make sure you get some fresh air now and then. x
ReplyDelete