What Work Can Do For Your Writing

     Now, if you have the money or guts to decide to write full time, I'm in awe of your prowess/courage.  But you can definitely gain something from working, whether it's a paid job or career, or just physical labor done around the yard.

     One very important thing that a job can do is expose you to people--school does the same thing, students!--and if you listen with a writer's ear, it can teach you a lot about dialogue and help jump-start creativity.  I clean shop for a local computer store on weekdays, and I've learned a lot about what a dirty floor can indicate, how to read the mood of the room, not to mention the tidbits I've picked up listening to my supervisors chat and bs.  Anything can become a story, any skill or quirk could help flesh out a character, any small observation can lead your protagonist to the cracking of a code, and the observations you make in life are the difference between the Anyman's writing and your writing.  The flavor is in the seasonings, as they say.

     Work--particularly physical labor--can also give you a lot of time to think, to move stories around in your head, find new paths for characters to travel, etc. etc.  It's good to make time to just let the information flow, and if you work daily, or even just weekly, it gives you a set time for just that.  Even if your work is too heavy in conscious thought to allow you that time, something as simple as doing the dishes or pulling weeds can have the same effect.  Take a walk!  Walks are wonderful things, I recommend them to everyone.

     And of course, at some point I'm sure at least one of your characters will set to some kind of work, and the more personal experience you have with whatever they set to, the better.  Maybe they need to farm the land, and you have no idea what it feels like to farm the land--but you've spent hours in the heat of the day mid-summer raking leaves and planting flowers, and while it's not the same, some of the experiences--the sweat, the heat, the aches of labor--are a good place to start.  The places you've worked, the streets you've walked, the smell of your office, the sound of your coworkers' chitter-chatter in the background, the thrill of appreciation and the blow of insults placed upon your work--your experiences are invaluable, so take mental (or physical!) note of each and every one.

     The devil's in the details, but so are the angels.