Back in September 2011, I quit my consulting day job to become a full-time author-entrepreneur and I've never gone back.
In today's article, Ron Vitale talks about how he is making the transition. He's also been on the podcast before talking about useful technology for authors.
Take the First Step
Back in 2008, I made a decision that changed my life. I decided to write a novel.
Yes, I worked full-time at a day job and had two small children, but realized that if I wanted my life to change, I needed to either make a move, or let go of my dream. Having my big “four-oh” birthday on the horizon proved to be the kick in the pants that pushed me to act. I thought long and hard, but decided to take a leap of faith and try. I now have 7 novels on sale on various platforms and am working on my next.
How? I did the following:
- Made a public commitment to my family and friends, holding myself accountable.
- Created a schedule that worked for my busy career.
- Chunked the work into bite-sized pieces.
Believe in Yourself
All my life I had waited for someone to validate me as an author. To change that unhealthy behavior, I started doing. I wrote in the morning before work, read “how to” articles and started listening to podcasts on writing and publishing. I reframed my goals by choosing to invest in myself and my dream.
No longer would I wait for someone to discover me, I would discover myself. I knew I would fail, need to pick myself back up and continue to try. But through it all, I realized that my greatest asset was my belief in myself. If I believed I couldn’t do the work, then I would never succeed.
Butt in Chair
Once I had decided to write a book, I need to plan the logistics. My days consisted of the following:
- Day job (including commute): 11-12 hours with weekends off
- Dinner, cleaning up and chores: 1-2 hour
- Playing with kids, putting them to bed: 1 hour
- Free time (spend time with my wife, read, watch TV, hobbies): 1-2 hours
- Sleep: 6-7 hours
Initially, I looked at my schedule and did not see where I could make time. Sure, I could cut out my free time each day, but I kept that on my schedule in order to actually have time to talk with my wife. I became frustrated, thinking of how little time I actually had to write, learn indie publishing and teach myself marketing strategies and started to give up hope.
I found the first few weeks of writing hard. I’d stare at the blank screen, start to write, but had trouble piecing together narrative threads over the course of the week. On Thursday, I’d forget my idea from Tuesday.
I kept trying, stopped writing when I became too frustrated or overwhelmed, but soon the habit grew on me after three weeks. To cement my new early morning writing habit, I found ways to trick myself into being motivated:
- I set a word count goal of 1,500 words per writing session.
- I created a Google Sheet and kept track of my daily writing counts.
- Before I finished my writing session, I’d allow threads to be left open by stopping in the middle of an action scene or in the middle of a conversation between two characters.
By using simple motivational means, I started shaping my own success because I could see my word counts adding up over time. After the first few days, 1,500 words became 4,500 until eventually I wrote 83,000 words. No longer did I feel lost, but had a tangible means of tracking my success—success that I could share with family and friends.
All Work and No Play…
I wrote my first two novels and they each took me more than a year to indie publish. What I discovered is that I had made time to write, but had not planned for brainstorming, research or just plain downtime. By luck, I stumbled into the sport of running. Friends of my wife and I had given us their old treadmill on hearing that we had wanted to start exercising.
To solve the problem, instead of forcing myself to write every day, I took a different approach. I split the early mornings throughout my week between writing and running:
Sunday: Long run
Monday: Writing
Tuesday: Short run
Wednesday: Writing
Thursday: Short run
Friday: Writing
Saturday: Writing
My new schedule freed up not only my creativity but also gave me a chance to pump endorphins through my veins. The exercise helped me mentally as well as physically. The last time I had run any distance I was in high school and that was more than two decades before. I wasn’t in the worst shape, but I didn’t exercise regularly.
Making time to schedule both writing and fitness into my life opened up new opportunities for me. I realized that I had to start somewhere. When I started, running two times around the block took some effort. I didn’t know how to breathe right, what sneakers to wear (or clothes), but I asked my friends for help, and slowly over time, I increased my speed and distance.
I took what I learned from running and applied it to my writing. As my runs became longer, I found my willpower also became stronger. I could focus longer and discovered that long runs often turned into time for me to solve a plot problem I had with my book or be open to an entirely new idea that would just pop into my head while running.
By creating the space for my mind to wander, I not only had more creative ideas, but I increased my weekly word count. How? I came to my laptop for my early morning writing sessions with ideas rather than needing time to imagine something to write about on the spot.
Exercising fed my writing and helped me solve plot problems. I had unintentionally discovered the perfect synergy between exercise and my writing.
You Can’t Do It All
After working hard for several years, I realized that I needed to bake downtime into my daily schedule. All work and no relaxation is not sustainable. Sometimes I need to just play a game, watch a movie, go to my kid’s concert and calm down. I can’t always be writing or running my author business.
I can’t do it all.
To be successful, I chose to take a more long term approach. I want to be a writer for the rest of my life. I did not wish to burn myself out in a few short years. My craft, building an audience, learning marketing and all the ins and outs of indie publishing takes time, patience and a whole lot of gumption. The desire to quit can be strong, but I learned to use my perceived lack of time as a motivator.
When I sit down in the morning to write, there’s a big difference between thinking that “I need to write a novel but don’t have enough time,” and the healthier thought of “I only have to write 1,500 words today. In time, I can complete my book.”
My mindset and how I think about a situation is key to my success. Overcoming a negative outlook takes time, energy and willpower. Change doesn’t happen overnight, but I found that if I gave myself room to grow and kept up at the work that, little by little, I not only completed the book, but had discovered a repeatable process that I could follow throughout the rest of my life. If I could learn how to balance working a full-time job, raise children and create my own author business, you can, too.
All it takes is a tiny first step—making the commitment to do the work.
How do you make time for writing? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.
His first nonfiction book, How to Become a Successful Author While Working Full-Time: The Secret to Work-Life Balance is now available. When not writing, he keeps himself busy by training for half-marathons and on learning how to be a good father to his kids.
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1 2 3 Next »A very motivating article. Thank you for sharing as this is a concern of mine also. I do find a little more time to write as I only work part time but have a busy home life to work with. Looking forward to getting back to my laptop after work tonight!
Thank you
Karen,
It's funny but as soon as I flipped the script in my head I found that a lot changed. Instead of my thinking: "I only have 40 minutes to write now!", I changed that and thought "Those 1,500 words I just wrote in the last 40 minutes just helped me cross the 30,000 word mark toward my next book!"
Funny how planning, exercise, mindfulness and believing in yourself can make a big difference.
Glad you found the article helpful!
Ron
Joanna, how in the world do you continue to do the Vulcan mind-meld with me. I feel like Ron is verbalizing my exact story! The main difference is I have hopped the half-century hurdle. But, I also have really seen an uptick in my writing ability, and planning skills. I think I am closer than ever to my dream of quitting the 9 to 5 to be a full time author!
By the way can you suggest some good podcasts I might look for that will aid in my development.
Great :) we're all on the journey together, just at different points!
This is a great article as I have e a full-time job myself. I work 35 hours in 4 days so my days are 14 hours between work and traveling. I write my books Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I try to do 2-3 chapters. I always make sure I write my 'to do list' and any ideas in my book I carry with me. During the week I work on small things such as social media, writing smaller poems. It's a grind but the balance is so important. I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling burnt out sometimes and I'm only 4 books in within a year!
Great article, Ron! I absolutely did the same (making that public affirmation, working in bite size chunks, and fitting it into a busy schedule). It truly works! It's wonderful to look back, isn't it, and realise just how much work you have created in those small but very meaningful blocks of time.
Great to hear how exercise has also helped you boost your creativity! There's nothing as beneficial as taking a stroll (or a stomp!) with a podcast, or your creative thoughts swirling, sometimes, is there?
Keep powering away with your wonderful positive mindset and juggling everything, and I look forward to seeing more Cinderella books and other stories from you in future. :-)
Thanks, Meg! It's not been an easy road and I like to be transparent and open about that. I have had my share of successes and failures along the way, but the reason why I wanted to write (since I was a kid) still remains: To share engaging stories with people.
Thanks again!
Ron
Thanks Ron.
This is what I need to do to get back on track with my online business launch - and book writing is part of that whole strategy.
Mike,
You are welcome! I hope by seeing all the work in phases/parts is helpful, knowing that publishing is a process and it takes time to gain traction. Good luck in your online business launch!
Thank you, Ron, for sharing your writing journey. I want nothing more than to be a full-time author. It's a passion that drives me. But, I also have the desire to eat, pay bills, and keep a roof over my head! So, I need to work a full-time job while pursuing my dream.
I do have one book published (under the pen name Bailey Baxter) and am determined to complete the other two books in the series. Plus, I have so many other book ideas I can't wait to tackle! My challenge is that I'm a freelance copywriter. I'm blessed to have great clients and a steady flow of projects. But, I'm kept busy writing full-time, and, when I go to work on my book in the evenings, my brain is spent. I'm trying to get to bed earlier and get up earlier to work on my current book before writing for my clients, but I haven't consistently pulled it off yet.
Frankly, I'm tired, because I take off little time for myself to just relax. (I think I've forgotten HOW to relax!) It really resonated with me when you talked about taking a long-term approach. I will never stop writing -- I may as well stop breathing! It's just what I do. And I don't want to burn out before I realize my dream.
Deanna,
I've stopped beating myself up on not being able to be full-time. Honestly, I love my day job and it often informs the tech behind my marketing strategy. It's a good fit that I can go back and forth between one world (day job) and the next (authorship/entrepreneur).
Good luck and I hope you do take time to relax. In my book, I give the tell-all about what happened during my burnout/meltdown phase. It wasn't pretty. Now I know how important self-care is!
Ron
Thanks Ron. I had been slipping a bit in my mental model the past couple of weeks, and this was perfectly timed to remind myself of the right script! So easy to open up Scrivener and forget to pull up the "Targets" window, or turn on my count-down timer, as tools to keep the energy flowing. I looked at my newest book and told myself "It's not __ thousands of words, it's __ number of days till my first draft is done, and that'll be right around the corner!" Looking forward to some new reading in your series as well!
I'm very happy I've read this post. I know I am in a difficult time of change in my life (both regarding my writing 'career' and my personal life) and after writing constantly for six years, now I'm feeling dejected.
I know this happens because I published my first book and nothing went as I hoped for, but I also know that you are right: our perspective on life and our writing career is key.
I do want to keep writing. I do have a family and a job. I just have to find a balance between all these elements.
Thansk so much for sharing your experience. It's inspiring :-)
I fight this fight every day, squeezing in what I can, when I can. I work full-time and have two very young kids, so there is no 'free time' for mama. Thank God I can pay someone to clean my house, or I would really be in trouble!
When I write, I know that I am prioritizing writing over spending more time with my family or exercising, etc. That's okay for now, but it can be a struggle. It hasn't dampened my love of writing, but it does take some of the fun out of it, not being able to tap into the muse and listen to her as long as I want.
My goals are simple though: keep writing, move forward, improve my craft and maybe one day, my day-dream will turn into my day-job. Anything is possible.
Congrats on all of your success and thank you for the encouragement! It's great to hear realistic success stories of fellow writers.
Thank you for your kinds words. Your comment really sparked some memories in me. When I first started writing seriously, my daughter was 2 and my son 6. I remember the times when they were sick, the lack of sleep and how I still was trying to juggle writing, work and family.
That's the exact feeling that I still (to this day) struggle with: If I am writing, I am taking time away from my family.
I'm not saying this is "good," but, for me, I decided to get up early before the kids were up. That way it was quiet and I wasn't missing out on time with them.
Ron
Fantastic article. I'm a single mum and working full time too with a long commute. I don't get that much time to write apart from late evenings and Sundays. As I have house hold chores and school runs and picking son from his dads. But even though my weeks are intense I will not give up on my dream. And always try to write even if it's only half an hour here or there and Sundays I try to do a lot more by getting all household chores done on the Saturday. And it seems to work and readying articles like this makes me feel I'm not the only one.
Is there any way to write on your commute? Mark Dawson wrote his first 6 novels on the train, Ben Galley wrote his first fantasy novel on his cellphone standing up on the train, and some writers dictate while driving. Is that possible as a way to carve out a little more time?