Writing Tips at GarySpeer.com

How do you support your writing habit? Are you fortunate enough to be able to make a living writing full-time? Or do you rely on some sort of “day job” to pay the bills and write when you are able to fit it into a busy life?

I’ve done both of the above. Right now I’m fortunate enough to have the time to write full-time — and squeeze out a living while I’m waiting for the writing to pay off better.

At times, as have most writers, I’ve done a variety of full-time and part-time jobs. Once I applied (three times all together, actually) for a job working for a health insurance data company. Although I went through the application process, and even got an interview two of the three times, I wasn’t told until the third time I applied that they really were looking for people ALREADY trained or experienced in medical coding.

That was a decent job with good pay and benefits. I wish I’d had some sort of medical coding training courses to get the job. I also wish they’d made it clear that I needed that sort of training the two times I did get interviewed.

Ah, well. Life goes on.

So what are you doing for a “day job”? Or are you able to write full-time and make it work? Leave a comment and tell us about your adventures in supporting your writing habit.

On one of the three forums I visit regularly, this one related to affiliate marketing, there’s a discussion thread started by someone everyone there respects. This person has been doing affiliate marketing more or less full-time for several years and just explained in this discussion thread that he’s selling off his websites and shutting down his affiliate marketing business to start a new full-time “off line” career.

He said he’s simply reached a point in his life and his family’s life where “retiring” from affiliate marketing for a serious, regular career (he did not explain what that career is) was best for him and his family — citing the unpredictable and changing nature of affiliate marketing in the last couple of years.

That started me thinking about the very idea of retirement or retiring as a writer. Would that mean I quit writing? Would that mean I might continue writing but not doing it for publication?

Assuming you’re reading this as a writer, how do you think about retirement and your writing? If you’re successfully publishing and making either a part-time or full-time living from your writing, can you imagine a time when you would no longer, BY CHOICE, do your writing?

I emphasize that “by choice” aspect because I can envision no longer writing if I literally, physically or mentally (or both) could no longer write.

But choosing not to write? That’s a bit harder. For one thing, writing is on many levels a sort of “life insurance” for me: Writing keeps me young, keeps me hopeful, keeps me alive in many ways. And I’ll bet there’s every chance that writing seems a lot like that to most of you reading this, too.

In recent months, one of my all-time favorite writers died, Robert B. Parker. If you’re a mystery fan, I highly recommend his Spenser series of novels. Mr. Parker, whom I never had the privilege of meeting, was a consummate pro. I read a story about him after his death that said he felt like one of the luckiest writers alive. He was teaching English at a small university and wrote his first novel, sent it off to a publisher with a short note something like, “I wrote this and wondered whether you’d be interested in buying it.” The story said that book was bought by the first publisher he sent it to — and every novel he ever wrote was sold quickly. Most of them were best-sellers.

Robert Parker died the way I think I’d like to go: He had a sudden heart attack and literally died at his keyboard working on a novel. (Well, I’m not thrilled about the heart attack part; I’d rather just doze off, nestled down on the sofa for a nap, and wake up in Heaven. Yeah, that’d do it for me.)

I wouldn’t know how to “retire” as a writer, would you?

My wife and I had a long talk over the weekend (or earlier this week, maybe?) about our future. I’ll say up front, we are both in our early-to-mid-60s, not necessarily “too old,” but certainly pushing the envelope for something like starting a brand new career.

So we’ve compromised — she’ll pretty much keep doing what she’s doing, and I will get back to the roots of what I’ve wanted to do all along: writing novels.

We’d just finished that part of the conversation when I let her in on the plans I had bubbling for a series of fantasy/adventure novels that could run as many as 10 volumes. Her immediate comment was something like: “Oh, that’s great dear. But maybe you should consider something smaller than 10?”

After some good natured joking about recent best-selling authors who’ve died suddenly, leaving their fans in the middle of series books that will never be continued (Robert B. Parker and Dick Francis, to be precise), we moved on to other things.

But I’ve thought about that. Should I truly spend a lot of time expecting to finish and sell a novel at my age? How about planning for a series of volumes? Will “old age,” or Alzheimer’s, or death step in and put a stop to my “series” in a big way??

Then I thought about our financial resources in terms of my dedicating a ton of time and work to novels — and I realized our finances are pretty shaky at best. Finally, I looked at my overweight, underactive body and general mediocre health and realized that was going against me, too. (And I’ve mentioned before, I have no health insurance currently, not federal, state or local, neither short term health insurance NC style nor plain old long term health insurance MO style; none, nada, zip.)

After carefully weighing all those factors at some length and holding follow-up conversations with my dear wife, we concluded this: WHY THE HECK NOT??

Life may be incredibly long or suddenly shortened for any of us. The challenge about living is to LIVE during the days, months, and years we have on this old ball of vegetation, dirt, and water. If you’re in your 20s, and you have a big plan for your writing, go for it. If, like me, you’re in your 60s — or 70s, 80s, etc.! — why the heck not go for it, too?

You’re a writer. You have something better or more fun to do with your time? Then maybe you really aren’t a writer. Go ahead, get busy. Write something we’ll all be proud of.