P.J. Murphy's Writer Site

I’ve not posted here recently due to, amongst other things, the demands of having a proper job. I do myself and other novelists a disservice in saying this because for many, writing is their true profession. They treat it as seriously, if not more so, than any job for which they are on the payroll. Perhaps I should more accurately refer to a ‘paid job’.

Statistically, it’s extremely difficult to make a living out of being a novelist. For one, a very small proportion of novelists sell enough copies to approach anything that can be reasonably termed a meaningful income. And if they do, when you compare that income to the number of hours invested in writing and editing a novel, the pay per hour is well under minimum wage. I’m talking here about both self-published and traditionally published novelists. Very few break through to earn an income significant enough to live on, never mind becoming astronomically rich!

What I write here applies to most creative roles. And it’s not a recent thing, either – this isn’t me bemoaning the state of the industry. It’s not for nothing that we have the stereotype of the struggling artist or the writer living in poverty.

So, how do I tackle this, and are there any bright sides to this terrible situation?

Well, the first thing I’d say is that, while the situation might be terrible, it’s rarely exploitative. Writers like me do this for love of the craft, for the joy of creating something from nothing. Making money from it is a bonus – and even then, I treat it as a marker that my work had engaged with readers. That’s the real goal, rather than pennies in the bank.

I’ve often wondered, too, if I could really cope with having writing as my full-time job, with all the expectations and pressures that come with it. After I finished university, I spent some months buried, working on my second novel, Yesterday’s Shadow. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. While it was great to be able to focus fully on the task at hand, that task became more difficult by the day. It turns out that locking yourself away from other people and staring at a screen for hours on end isn’t all that conducive to the creative process. So, this is one big plus I’d say about having a ‘proper job’: it puts you in contact with people, and in situations that get the brain fired up.

Of course, it depends on the job. You don’t want a high-powered job that uses up all your time and mental energy. Equally, a dull, routine job with little contact with people rarely brings those benefits. As with many things in life, the trick is balance.

So, what about me? Well, I’m in a full-time job, which on occasion takes up a lot of my mental space, and together with family life, a lot of my time. Hence, my radio silence these past couple of months. But the job does bring a great deal of satisfaction: working on problems, getting things done, interacting with colleagues. I just have to be very careful about how I fit in my writing around that. Here are a few tricks I’ve learned:

1. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. It’s really important to still enjoy writing, and if you’re stressing about fitting it in, that’s not going to help. I’ve found there can be a great advantage in having enforced gaps between my writing time. It helps me take distance and come back to the writing with a fresh pair of eyes.
2. Take advantage of the little times. I’ve found that I can get a lot done in twenty minutes. You’re forced to focus, and you normally come to it after a period of reflection, meaning that you know exactly what you want to write. So, use those lunch hours, coffee breaks and commutes. I found that the invention of the tablet was a godsend, meaning that I had my work in progress at my fingertips whenever I wanted.
3. Remember that every step, however small, is one step closer to the finish line. Writing can be frustrating sometimes. You want to make significant progress, but then struggle to get through even a few paragraphs. This frustration can be exacerbated by knowing that it can be many hours or days before your next window to write. But I find it helpful to focus on what I’ve achieved rather than what I have not – what’s been completed so far rather than what’s left to go. I may only have written two paragraphs, but they’re two paragraphs that weren’t there before. And they’re now here for good (unless I cut them later, but that’s another story!)

And now – funnily enough – I need to finish this post and get off to my day job. Hope you’ve enjoyed the read!

Paul