Collection
Day Job
Private investigator. Subway conductor. Building superintendent. In Medium’s Day Job series, 12 accomplished authors discuss the years of the income-producing work they did to support their writing. From slicing soap in a luxury bath store to directing air strikes in Afghanistan, these authors discuss not only the jobs themselves, but also the ways they protected their time and creativity from the demands of their full-time careers (and still do!)
How the Interviewer Pays the Bills While He Writes the Book
“I work nights as a paramedic, days as a writer. The job brings me into thousands of apartments most people never see.”
Elizabeth Strout: How I Paid the Bills While I Wrote the Book
“I went back to law school because I could get more writing done during law school than I could when I had to support myself”
Andy Weir: How I Paid the Bills While I Wrote the Book
‘At no point did I ever risk my financial security to become a writer.’
Carmen Maria Machado: How I Paid the Bills While I Wrote the Book
‘I got good at moving my screens quickly. I wrote in my email browser so it looked like I was writing an email.’
Mitchell S. Jackson: How I Paid the Bills While I Wrote the Book
‘Guys in prison always say, “I wish someone would write my life story. It would be a bestseller.” So I thought I’d start writing mine.’
Amy Bloom: How I Paid the Bills While I Wrote the Book
“I’m a big believer in making a living, so I wrote at night or when nobody needed anything from me”
Nicole Dennis-Benn: How I Paid the Bills While I Wrote the Book
“I was smart, I was the eldest — it was on me to pull up my family.”
Will Mackin: How I Paid the Bills While I Wrote the Book
‘She told me, “Don’t go right to a graduate program. Join the Navy and have something to write about.”’
Kaitlyn Greenidge: How I Paid the Bills While I Wrote the Book
‘I really didn’t want to leave my job—I understood that it was going to help me creatively.’
Karan Mahajan: How I Paid the Bills While I Wrote the Book
“I was still being a responsible Indian kid getting a monetize-able degree from an American university”
