If quitting the magazine would affect your / your family's quality of life, I don't think it's a sacrifice worth making. If it wouldn't make a difference, but you're clinging on because you think that makes you a "real" writer, quit! It's not going to get you any additional respect, and you can still mention in a query that you wrote professionally for x years. I know that employment rights are different in the US but I use up a couple of weeks of annual leave for writing. I keep 4 weeks for real holidays and use 2 weeks to sit and home and write all day. Is that an option?
Very different. The community college offers no paid time off because I'm just an adjunct. I guess they figure the summer is when you are supposed to do research and writing. So far that's been the case. The Census Bureau offers 40 hours of paid time off annually, but there are rules for when you can take that time. (Example: never the week of the 19th, never the first seven days of the month, etc.) And now because of budget issues we've been told that no personal leave will be approved until further notice. If they are paying us, they want us working. The magazine would not affect family or income. Right now all that money goes into savings anyway. (And it isn't much.) It's just sometimes I get a wild hair and think, someone should write a story on that! So, I do. There is no paid time off because they just pay for the articles I complete. I do all my own photographs, research, etc, so I figure it works out to being paid about $2/hour. This would be the thing to give up, BUT it's the work I most enjoy.
Well if that's the only thing that can give, you need to decide if you enjoy it more than writing your novel. You can't create more hours in the day, unfortunately, so all you can do is set your priorities.
5.6 weeks is the minimum, though if you work part time it's pro rata'ed. So somebody working one day a week gets 5.6 days off. Because I'm fairly senior I get 29 days + 8 bank holidays + 1 week at Christmas. But other countries in Europe have higher entitlements.
I did the Octavia Butler thing when I was working (I'm retired now, yay!). Well, I got up at 4am instead of 2am, but it was the same idea. Sometimes I had to be at work at 8am, sometimes later, depending on my shift. Getting up at 4 meant I got between 2 and 3 hours of writing in (at least) before I had to get ready and leave for work (a 20-minute walk from the house). What was significant was that my brain was always fresh at that time in the morning, plus NOBODY pestered me! No phone calls, nobody yapping at me. Just me. Of course it did mean I needed to get to bed around 8pm every night, but I was motivated, so that worked well.
You're not alone. According to this ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/05/americans-vacation-days-2014_n_6419100.html ) 42% of American's didn't take a single vacation day in 2014.
A lot of Europeans are flabbergasted to learn that there is no legal minimum for paid days off here. Part-time workers especially are typically shafted coming and going since it is usual for part-time workers not to be offered any health or retirement benefits as well as no vacation. Even for full-time salary workers it's common to start out at a company with only 8-10 paid days off per year (and sometimes you don't even start banking days off until you've cleared a 3-6 month 'probation' period, yet another way along with widespread pre-employment drug screening that we've started habitually treating everybody as a suspected wrongdoer by default); you might be able to your way up to a month off if you stay with the company for a long time and/or are an excellent negotiator. Plus the new standard is a particularly insidious practice called 'paid time off' or PTO in which your sick days and your vacation come out of the same pool of accrued time. So if you're a new employee who happened to catch a bad flu this winter, too bad for you--you used up your 5.2 days of PTO and you won't have accrued enough for a meaningful vacation until mid-2018. Except you'll likely be sick more often in coming years, since you never get a vacation and your immune system will be shot to hell from stress and overwork. So, in essence, you will never have a paid vacation again, and you'll probably die of heart failure or diabetes before you reach retirement age. For which you won't have earned a pension anyway. Enjoy your new job! If you can't tell, I'm not a fan of the employment status quo here in the US of A. :/
NO. Not everyone gets six weeks off in the UK! I get 13 weeks a year off but that's because I work in a school, so I get the school holidays off. As I have children myself, I can hardly call them holidays! My husband, who works for a supply company, gets around 25 DAYS a year holiday. (about five weeks, two of which, have to be allocated over the christmas period, leaving him with three weeks to choose himself). There is a vast difference of holiday entitlement in the UK and it all depends on what your job is. Some companies start you on maybe 15 days leave and add an extra day for every year you work for them, up to a set number, and so on. Personally speaking, I write when I can - everyday. It could be ten minutes and no words or a few hours producing a few thousand words, but it's something. I actually think it's more of an addiction that anything else!
You realize that you are complaining about your hubby only getting 25 days off when @BookLover and I get 7, and are made to feel guilty for using any of them. Never mind that fact that many Americans get 0 days of PTO each year.
@cutecat22's right of course, I forgot about all the people working shifts or term-time only or otherwise not on fixed weekly hours. Everybody working the same number of days per week is entitled to 5.6 weeks of time off, however many days that equates to. It isn't a race to the bottom and nobody should feel guilty for getting what they're entitled to, OR wanting more. It's like saying nobody in either of our countries should complain about their salary because some people in developing countries are paid pennies a day. Nonsense. I'd support US workers however I could (realistically, probably nothing I could do!) if you fought for better employment rights. But I won't feel guilty for having more.
Anyway, I wish I hadn't mentioned holiday entitlement because now this has gone way off-topic! Holidays aside, other ways I make time for writing are: Getting into work early. It's to beat the traffic but rather than starting work 45 minutes early, I can use the time to write. Same with my commute. If I got public transport I would take a tablet with me but since I drive, I can use the time to think/plan my story so I can write more effectively when I do get in front of my laptop. At weekends, have a long lie-in then stay up into the early hours. Once everybody else has gone to bed and there's no talking/TV/other noise, I'm far more productive. Plus I am sooo not a morning person.
I am the same way. I'm a right brain working in business right now. I, like you, wish I could write as my job, even if I'm writing business related things. I love writing so much that I could write anything! Well that's not going to happen, not any time soon anyways so you have to live with it. I'm not sure if your creativity is being drain so much as you are just stuck for ideas. When I get home I have to care for my 2 kids, fit in time to complete my degree (i do it online) and be a wife. I still manage to find time and motivation to write. If you are unable to make time for something then its not a priority to you. When Im at work I can think about a million things while I am doing my work and I use that time to go over my story ideas and figure out what the next step in my story should me. I don't work with outlines or notebooks so I do a lot of thinking and feeling. Sometimes when I'm off the clock for lunch I may get a few hundred words out and email it to myself and then copy and paste when I go home.
Exactly. I spend so much time thinking about my story that once i get in front of my computer I bang it our real quick. The power of just thinking about your story is very strong for me.
And that is the difference between the US and the UK. We ARE made to feel guilty for taking what we are entitled too. Last year I donated 16 of my 40 hours of leave to a co-worker whose husband was in hospice and dying of cancer. She already used her 40 hours and was distraught about leaving him alone to die while she went to work. The year before I used all 40 of my hours when my son broke his patella and thanks to the generosity of my co-workers, was able to get another 13 hours of leave, so I could take him to his PT appointments. That's why we have shared leave in the US, so we can donate what we don't need to our co-workers who might have a greater need. In 2012 I used all 40 hours to take my son's Scout group to the Grand Canyon. I got the evil eye from all the rest of my co-workers, because by using that time myself it wouldn't be available for any of them if there was some emergency. If we all use our hours for "fun" then someone might not get to attend their child's funeral or have time off to grieve.
That's very sad. I don't know how trying to make cutecat (or anyone else) feel bad about their entitlement is going to help.
I'm not complaining - if it was up to me, he wouldn't have any days off as he only gets under my feet! The point I was making, is that not everyone in the UK gets a standards 6 weeks holiday. Some get more, some get less and it all depends on the company you work for.
Exactly. It's not going to help. I don't set the rules for anyone's holiday entitlement. It is what the company decides. But, as I do have so many weeks off, (which, by the way, I only get half pay for as a retainer) it means I can't have any other holidays or doctor's/hospital appointments during work time. If I am sick, I get sick pay. If my children are sick and need me to be off with them, I don't get paid for the shifts I miss. If I have to have time off for a medical appointment for me or anyone in my family, I don't get paid for the shifts I miss. And when I started the job 8 years ago, I was only working a shift of two hours a day which gave me around £50. a week. Peanuts. So even though I have 13 weeks off, it 'aint all rosy and green on my side of the fence and I won't be made to feel guilty because you have less holidays, and co-workers who begrudge you what YOU are entitled to.
I try to find time at night and over the weekends. On a related note, whenever I start complaining about how little time I have to write, I think of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who managed to find a way to write even while imprisoned in a labor camp. He used to write on little scraps of paper, memorize what he had written, and then throw them away so that the guards wouldn't find them. If he could find the time to write, I think most of us can as well.
I have a pretty standard 9-5 job, plus an extra hour or so either way for commute, with minimal off-hours work (quite surprisingly, considering my field, though it is dependent on the current client). When I have the momentum going, I usually spend a few after-dinner hours writing on-and-off. Something I find useful is to mute the commercials while watching TV and tap away during those breaks. I've gotten a good bit accomplished over the course of a night's worth of primetime that way.
Christ, that really sounds harsh! Really makes me rethink my complaints about not having enough time due to studying and working part-time to finance it... although I have no reason to complain anyway during the summer (when we have an insane period of almost four months off!)
Well, I mean, I was playing it up for effect, but yeah, it's not great. Americans as a group are very unhealthy people and it's my belief that the way we handle work and employment are a major cause (along with our generally very poor social networks/community connections--which is of course partly a result of working too much). Ha, yeah, I thought I knew what not having a lot of free time felt like when I was working part-time through college, too--then I graduated and got a real job and I learned how little I knew. Then I quit and went to work for myself, and found out what it's like to have no money instead! Try and do something worthwhile with your time while you have it. You'll find it much more precious once it's gone.
For me, it's more about time management than not finding the time. I get two days off a week, mostly so I can have some time with my husband. So, a good chunk of them is quality time. The rest, I work 35 hours, emotionally and physically drained after. Usually in the afternoon however, so I have my mornings. And then I have books, TV shows, and video games to play (I can't just quit ) So, for me, it's really about buckling down and saying "I'll read a few chapters on my way to work/breaks. I'll only play a few hours of gaming rather than eight. I'll try not to waste time on youtube, reddit, or WF" and give my writing the time I have and the time it deserves from me. It's hard not being lazy and breaking habits and telling myself "Sure, I have less time for fun stuff because I write but in the end, It'll pay off and then I'll have time for fun again." rather than waste my time and be stuck at my day job while pretending to work for a better life... So yea... that's my struggle.
I don't have a job, I'm a student, but I have the same problem. It takes me around 1h to get to university and 1h to go back home, so I already lose this precious time. My priority isnt writing , it's not failing my year haha and given my field of studies I have to do a lot of reading, learning , Essay writing etc... Which I have trouble finding time to do because since university is 1h away during the day I just cant go home if I have a gap between two classes. During that time I tried to write but it doesnt work for me I need to be at home to do so. So basically I try to write a few hours during the weekend (more or less, depending on my exam timetable). And during the week if I dont have exams to study for and that I'm not too exhausted, I try to write 1-2 h (but I'l sometimes just too drained from my energy so I end up looking at my screen with lots of idea but I'm just too damn tired).After I'm done with university, my dream would be to be a freelance journalist and write the rest of the time.
@PrincessSofia, why don't you move onto campus or at least closer? An hour is a really long commute to school.
