Thursday, January 12, 2012

Just checking in

I discontinued this blog back in 2009 since it served its purpose and I have enough to do already, but I happened to come across it today so I thought I'd post an update.

It is now about three-and-a-half years since I quit my day job. I am still supporting myself writing. I'm not exactly J.K. Rowling over here, as I often say when people are impressed by that, but I still have a roof over my head and food in the fridge.

I'm not going to lie--this is a hard way to make a living. You have to hustle constantly for work, and if you don't feel like working one day and have a deadline, you're stuck. It is not especially lucrative. However, I am doing what I love and have the flexibility to take off in the middle of the day whenever I want to balance out working until midnight.

If you are thinking about quitting your day job to write full time, my advice is: pay off your bills, get some savings in the bank, and make sure you have a plan and clients lined up before you do it. I also think it would be way easier if you have a spouse with a "real" job with benefits and a steady paycheck in case you have some lean times. In our case, my husband is doing the same thing I am so there have been some extremely lean times. However, we've made it this far, and I'm sure it will get better.

Thanks for reading!