Does Your Day Job Influence Your Writing?
Just a quick post to share with you a post I made over at the GITS Club message board – if you haven’t stopped by and registered I highly recommend you do so. Plenty going on over there and many, many helpful folks. And, of course, thanks to Jeff Messerman for starting and running the board (http://www.gitsclub.proboards.com/index.cgi) – so, what are you waiting for? Oh! Yeah. My post……
I’ve been asked by Jeff if my day job was in advertising and by lizzo1014 if I am a copy editor.
Nope. Neither.
I’m a programmer by day – screenwriter by night. But this got me thinking — a dangerous situation at best. It got me thinking: how does the day job influence my screenwriting?
As a programmer I have to be a problem solver. I have to be creative. And when I am coding, I have to think ahead – if I code this function this way, how can I use it somewhere else; if I do this first, what has to happen next? What happens four or five functions down the road? You get the idea.
Programming and screenwriting – or writing in general – require similar skills: understanding structure; the ability to think ahead; solving problems in creative ways.
So, how does your day job influence your writing? We are now open for discussion.
Keep Writing!
Great topic of discussion, Mike. I’ve already posted one response on the GITS Club story boards. Here’s a second take:
For the most part my job(s) over the years have not left me very fulfilled. Thus writing became my outlet to escape the mundane. Sometimes the day job provided a necessary break in between writing sessions. Other times its demands have crimped the creative flow.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Hey, Mike.
I agree with E.C. Really good discussion topic.
I find that being a full-time freelance writer can sometimes drain me creatively making it a challenge to find time and energy for my own projects. What I did last year was write two new screenplays while on vacation (while in Ireland for three weeks). If I couldn’t carve out time for my own work, and make progress toward the next level in my career, I would likely grow bitter and choose to give up being a freelance writer. Fortunately, that hasn’t happened.
On a more positive note, I’ve been getting paid for some time to write non guild-signatory material including screenplays, plays and books. The more I write, the better I understand communication, story, structure and my writing skills benefit.
Hope you are well, creative and fulfilled.
Best,
H.
H,
Thanks for stopping by — been a while since I have heard from you. Glad to hear you are writing AND getting paid for it. Wish you great success.
Keep Writing!