Starting out as a writer, while in Full time employment – The other primary writing requisites.

So you have been bitten by the writers bug, my commiserations. Funny thing for a writer to say, but here’s why.

You have a story you feel you want to tell others, you have the tools these days to make it easier and you have all the help in the world, with examples, on how to make this happen. Wonderful. You are lucky. Brilliant. Your success is ensured, right.

Well perhaps. Now lets see, ‘before’ that success you need to have a few other things; and they can be insurmountable: –

1. Time. You need time, to get that wonderful story onto the page. And you have to fit it in between your full time job, family and everything else in your life. It may be added I DID get lucky with that, ironically by getting made redundant. With sufficient funds to allow me to take my time getting a new job, I had the time to write and write and write. That created 1 and a half books in rough, before I polished them.

2. Money. Not only do you need money to sustain your family you need it to start up that second career, production, marketing, travel etc. I got partially lucky with that, a windfall gave me enough spare to have a small self-publishing pot.

3. Support. Your family have to help, rather than hinder you; keeping quiet, doing things that you would normally do, if you were not busy building this new monstrosity of a career. Again partially lucky with that, they at least did not get in my way.

4. Stability. Life has to let you get on without serious disruption. You have to ‘keep’ your job, family, life … and for it to be calm enough to allow you to pluck those words and secure them in that vault book. Bad luck with that can cost you the whole project, but for me it just slowed the progress, until I got lucky again.