Writing and The Day Job

This is the third in a series of posts about the hard work of becoming a writer. The other two older posts can be found here (Base Camp) and here (The three Rs). Although I've kept a blog for some time and written a PhD I find myself still working out the way towards writing for a living. In the long term I had intended to try to publish my PhD thesis as a book once the examiners reports are sent back. I do think this will be difficult or perhaps impossible without any support from a university though. And it may simply otherwise take too long for it to be feasible. I'm also working on the start of a journal article based upon bits of three chapters. Luckily I'm able to present the start of this journal article as a work in progress at a couple of university seminars.

Recently I've also had a couple of reviews published in a film and television magazine. Then on Monday I found out that another two reviews had also been accepted. I've not written about this as I have not wanted to jinx it and it seems very much a process of slowly getting work out. The big thing for me about this writing is that it is my first paid work. While I've got some other work published as part of academic conference proceedings I did not get paid for it. So it is especially rewarding in that regard. Getting this work out there would not have been possible without the help of a writer friend of mine, who read and critically commented on my work. (Thanks again if you happen to be reading this. Getting those things published gave me back some self respect.)

I've also started back doing some tutoring work at a local university. As it turns out never again happens to be a very long time. Two days before I was due to start I was feeling really depressed because I have not been able to change what I'm doing. I thought to myself 'I'm still stuck doing casual tutoring work that will end in 12 weeks time...' But then I've actually really enjoyed the work after I started. I thought writing a PhD and having a range of teaching experience now might now open some doors. This is not the case. Having said all that, this 'day job' is keeping me afloat, albeit it is very little income compared to a full time proper job. However the casual nature of this work may allow me to get some more writing done and perhaps even a few more pieces in a range of publications. Trying to look on the bright side about that.