While I was watching Chicago Tonight on Tuesday night, Phil Ponce interviewed a guy who took on 50 jobs in 50 states. He worked as a coal miner, a cook, lumberjack, among other occupations. That got me thinking about the tons of choices for jobs we can give our characters in manuscripts.
In Killer Career, the main character is a lawyer whose decision to change careers and become an author proves deadly. In Two Wrongs, the main character turns into a pro basketball player.
What about your characters? Tell us what they do for a living in your novel or manuscript.
Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/
Showing posts with label day job. Show all posts
Showing posts with label day job. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
A Busy Day
Most writers work day jobs because it's difficult to make a living as an independent writer, especially with ficiton. It's not impossible - just difficult. The irony is that the day job that pays the bills tends to infringe on the time available to write.
I love my day job but today was one of those days that just left me exhausted. Still, I managed to crank out a few sentences on the train and update my scene list as I work on my second romantic suspense novel. Now a few sentences doesn't sound like much but I learned awhile ago that writing even just one sentence a day is fundamental to making progress on completing any written work.
It takes discipline to turn on my laptop after a long day at work, but I'm enjoying my writing process so much that even penning one sentence is ample reward for me, although most days I write much more than that. A sentence or paragraph a day eventually leads to a chapter which leads to another chapter which leads to a novel length work of fiction. It's almost intoxicating.
So, what if I never get an offer for a book conract? What if my work is only read by a few people? Well, that might happen, but I'm not giving up. Writing is part of who I am now and expressing myself through my writing is as essential to my life as making a living. I'm fortunate that I enjoy both and find them both rewarding. I'm really fortunate that I can always depend on one of them to pay my bills. Anything else is icing on the cake - but then, I like icing on my cake.
I love my day job but today was one of those days that just left me exhausted. Still, I managed to crank out a few sentences on the train and update my scene list as I work on my second romantic suspense novel. Now a few sentences doesn't sound like much but I learned awhile ago that writing even just one sentence a day is fundamental to making progress on completing any written work.
It takes discipline to turn on my laptop after a long day at work, but I'm enjoying my writing process so much that even penning one sentence is ample reward for me, although most days I write much more than that. A sentence or paragraph a day eventually leads to a chapter which leads to another chapter which leads to a novel length work of fiction. It's almost intoxicating.
So, what if I never get an offer for a book conract? What if my work is only read by a few people? Well, that might happen, but I'm not giving up. Writing is part of who I am now and expressing myself through my writing is as essential to my life as making a living. I'm fortunate that I enjoy both and find them both rewarding. I'm really fortunate that I can always depend on one of them to pay my bills. Anything else is icing on the cake - but then, I like icing on my cake.
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