Some writers are fortunate enough to be able to survive on the fruits of their labours, Good luck to 'em, I say but as yet, I am not one of them. I work in a shop by day and on my days off and at night, I write.
It's far more usual than not, I suppose. Even giants of literature have often had to work in two different worlds simultaneously to keep the wolf from the door.
Larkin was the librarian at Hull University for years alongside being one of the great English poets of the post war era, Sylvia Plath was a medical secretary, a university lecturer and proof reader whilst also writing some of the most radical, brilliant poems ever known. Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte taught pupils either as teachers or governesses whilst also writing. It must be said though that Emily hated this line of work so much that she gave it up and went back home to support her father instead.
William Golding wrote "Lord of the Flies" while working as a teacher at Bishop Wordsworth's School. I could go on.
I've had the experience of being a full time writer by chance as a result of being furloughed for a few months due to Covid. I started writing
The Nemo and Co. Series (2 book series) Kindle Edition (amazon.com) around June last year whilst still being furloughed, then a couple of months later I was back to work in the shop and trying to juggle my writing life with my working life in the shop. It was like two worlds colliding but each part of my life informed the other. I would assert that there are few better places better than a shop to study people and the human condition in general. You see everything there. Comedy, tragedy, brutality, generosity, birth, life and death. All of life is there and you view peoples' lives up close and personal. There's nothing better to inspire great stories,
I remember feeling a sense of fear that I would struggle to carry on with the juggling and that once I returned to the shop, the inspiration would dry up, I'd be cursed with the writer's blocks that so often erupted in the past. But weirdly, so far that hasn't happened and now I'm nearly up to 18'000 words in instalment number 4 of #thenemoandcoseries. I'm still working in the shop and some of my customers are also my readers. It's like having a foot in two separate camps. They can be very different at times but they also work together hand in hand somehow. For the time being that's how it'll have to stay but there are worse ways to make a living,
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