Writing Work Review: Writer with a Day Job by Áine Greaney

Introduction:

Irish-born author Aine Greaney is the author of the novels The Big House (2003), Snow (2014), and Writer with a Day Job (2011).

Writer with a Day Job is a book that promises to contain, “inspiration & exercises to help you craft a writing life alongside your career.”

With sixteen chapters Greaney gives advice and examples of how even the busiest and most hectic of day jobs can still leave anyone with enough time to write their novel and shift into being a part-time writer.

Overview:

Trying to balance a career, social life, and family can be difficult enough without the extra stress and loss of free time trying to write a novel will bring to you.

Many writers believe that once they cross that threshold from writer to author they’ll be able to make enough money to never have to step foot into their tiny office cubicle again.

The truth is that most authors don’t earn a full-time income from their writing and still keep their day jobs in order to pay the bills and all the other necessities.

Sure you might make enough to step down to a part-time job, but don’t just up and quit your job just because you were able to type THE END onto that novel of yours. There’s still a long way to go after that.

This book helps you find the time to write your novel in the little bits of time you didn't think you had, giving you examples from real-life authors you have done it.

One man was able to write several novels just by taking back his lunch hour and dedicating it to writing.

As well as being a guide for finding the time to write, this book takes the time to focus on how to write, with chapters dedicated to creating characters, writing settings, and creating dialogue. This book seems to be an all-you-need writing guide to take you from your full-time job into the world of writing and eventual authorship.

Summary:

Writer with a Day Job contains many important aspects that any author in the making can use to help them set and achieve their writing goals.

With chapters such as:

• Build Your Daily Writing Stamina
• Writing At the End of Your Day
• Writers and Dreaming
• Before, During, and After Work: Grab Your Writing Time While You Can
• Going Back in There: Revisit and Rewrite

All of these chapters give an in-depth look into the different aspects of being a writer. It has all the information a college textbook would have, without the feeling that you are reading a college textbook.

It’s more as if you are having a conversation with a coworker/friend who has already managed to live your dream and publish their novel while still working the same full-time demanding job as you.

If they could do it, so can you.

*“Today is not your job to write a huge, three-hundred-page block-buster. Today’s job is simply to write the next scene or the next three pages or the next six hundred words-even if they’re scattered, lousy words. When that’s done, you can get up and walk away, switch off the lights, and go to bed. Tomorrow you’ll have another job” to write the next scene, or the next three pages, or the next six hundred words.” (Greaney 197)

Writing a novel should not be a major disruption to your life, nor should it be a monumentally stressful part of it.

If you want to write you’ll be able to make the time within your day without neglecting necessities such as food, sleep, or taking care of yourself. Your book doesn’t have to be written in a day, it’ll be there for you day after day until you’re able to write THE END of that final page.

Assessment:

Even as a full-time author I found this book to be helpful in managing my time and crafting my skill through its suggestion of daily journaling. An idea I had heard of before, but never felt the desire to try until reading how it could improve my storytelling ability.

There are several pages focused on improving dream recall I have already put into effect in my daily routine upon waking up and I have been having amazing results remembering my dreams and making story ideas out of them.

Whether you are new to writing or are already a full-time author this book will have something for you, especially the section on revising.

Any author’s dreaded nightmare.

Although I had originally found this book on the shelf of my local library, I will be purchasing a copy for myself to keep on hand for reference.

Keep writing, your book isn’t going to write itself.

With love,

B.K. xo

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*Greaney Áine. “Writing While Holding Down a Day Job: It’s Right There on the Candy Wrapper.” Writer with a Day Job: Inspiration & Exercises to Help You Craft a Writing Life Alongside Your Career, Writers Digest Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2011, pp. 196–197.