Is there a way I can work both these jobs without killing myself?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 06:32:02 -0800

Is there a way I can work both these jobs without killing myself? So, my 9-5 job is working from home as a legal transcriber. The work is boring, tedius and highly concentration-intensive. By the end of the day, all I want to do is crash and watch anime until bedtime. Accuracy is paramount in my work and a constant worry, because yanno, legal reprecussions. I also feel I don't get paid near enough [I'm on min wage, yet I listen to murder cases, child abuse & neglect cases, etc.] I'd ask for a raise, however it's been made clear that "raises" are the "quality bonus'" based on, duh, the final quality of a job. Which, let me tell you, that world view sucks major ass.

ANYWAY - the only reason I'm working this job is so I can afford to live and support my "I want to be a novelist" dream. You can stop rolling your eyes now, I realize that everybody and their mother wants to write a book, but I'm actually planning on doing this for a living, i.e. more than one book, and I plan on doing this for the rest of my life. To ask me to stop writing would be like asking me not to breathe. I've worked as a freelance magazine writer before and was also the finalist in a prestigious [well, in my particular genre] competition. I know I can string two words together - that isn't the problem.

I need a way to be able to work these two jobs side by side. Come the end of the day of listening to peopel who know they're being taped yet talk away like they're inverted monkeys - I can't stand to look at another piece of text. Not helpful when you're trying to write.

I loathe saying this, but all "creativity" is gone. I just want to crash and do nothing after a day in front of the comptuer. Weekends are the same - I neither want to work or write. I might take a walk or play a computer game, but that's it. When left to my own devices - a week off, or a stint in hospital - I'll write for hours at a time until my fingers are sore, feeling I've actually accomplished something. I also keep an open A4 pad on my desk while working, to jott down any random ideas that come into my head. However the road to actually finishing a novel while I'm working this other job seems longer than ever, without an end. I always seem to be "writing a novel", but never "finishing a novel" and that really, really pisses me off.

I need a way to work both these jobs in tandem other - something I can do at the end of the workday that'll make me want to look at & edit even more text. I do enjoy the *idea* of working at home - I'd be working like that anyway if I made it as a novelist. But the two jobs seem to be in conflict with each other: the legal one eats my soul, the part where I don't write has the same effect.

Any suggestions? Or could anybody be in a similar predicament? Anyone with the glorious vision of hindsight? [FYI *Please* don't recommend "airy fairy" stuff - Julia Cameron's book "The Right To Write" made me hurl and any BS waffling about "capturing my muse" or "plumeting the depths of my noble creativity to find my blahblahblah" will result in a sound earcuffing].

And this is anonymous because that last paragraph will offend countless people. Sorry, but I just don't buy that "ZOMG I'm a writer, watch me Emo" BS.

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Is there a way I can work both these jobs without killing myself?