Celebrating A Year of Freedom

Can you all believe it’s been a year since I quit my day job to become a full time writer? I know I can’t. It’s been one hell of a year (in a good way) and it has totally flown by.

I thought it would be good to reflect on the last year and share with you what I have learned:

Writing Isn’t An Impossible Career Choice

In fairness, I didn’t know it was meant to be until I’d been doing it for a few months and started to see more and more blog posts, articles etc. saying it’s impossible to make a full time wage out of writing. If I had seen them prior to making the leap, maybe I still would have done – maybe I wouldn’t. I honestly don’t know.

But what I do know is that it isn’t impossible – I’m the living proof of that. I make more money as a writer than I ever have in “normal” jobs, including the time when I worked a full time 40 hour a week job and a 25 hour a week part time job at the same time.

Working for Someone Else Has Never Inspired Me

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never really had a job I hated. But it’s only since making the leap to working for myself that I’ve realised how uninspiring I’ve always found working for someone else.

It’s always been a case of bills need to be paid, so I have to work. Now I’m passionate about what I do for a living. This has made a huge difference to how I feel about myself and my life.

That My Mid 30’s Was The Perfect Time for Me To Do This

When I first started writing full time, one of the things I said a lot was “I wish I’d done this years ago”.

The truth is, if I had have, I don’t think I’d still be doing it now. Certainly in my 20’s, I wouldn’t have had the self discipline to hit deadlines. I turned up to work because I didn’t want to be sacked. With no manager to be accountable to, I really think I would have spent more time not working than I did working.

That It’s Nowhere Near As Scary As I Imagined

Before putting in my notice at work, the idea of leaving had been circling around my head for a couple of months. My thoughts jumped between “I can do this” and “what if it all goes Pete Tong and I don’t make any money”.

I worked out my finances, and knew I could last three or four months with no income if it came to that – and if all fails, I could always go back to a 9-5 job, as much as I hated the idea.

I’ve never had a month where I didn’t hit my target earnings and I now know that being self-employed is nowhere near as scary as I imagined it would be. If you’re willing to put the work in, you’ll make money. It’s really that simple. Even my first tax return was nowhere near as bad as I’d built it up to be in my head.

If you’re thinking of making the jump to a full time writer, I really hope this post helps you to see that it really is a plausible option.

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