Great Side Jobs For Every Writer

From Writerslife.org:

While we love being writers, it can be hard to make writing a full-time career. However, trying to fit writing around a 9-5 office job also doesn’t appeal.

So is there a balance? For many writers, the idea of being able to manage our own time, be our own bosses, have creative freedom and control and have the time to write whenever we want is the ideal situation. But most jobs won’t allow for that and can bore us, tire us and drain our creativity.

Writing takes up a lot of mental energy and some serious hours too. If you have a demanding and stressful day job to juggle alongside this it is all too easy for your writing to constantly be pushed to the back burner until you realise you never actually get round to it.

The solution is finding the perfect side job - one which is flexible, keeps those creative juices flowing, and allows you plenty of time to write - while also paying the bills too of course.

So what are some great side jobs you could try?

Bar work

Bar work is easy shift work that pretty much anyone can do. You’ll probably have to work many of your hours over the weekends which means your social life might have to take a hit, but then the weekdays are freed up to concentrate on writing full-time!

Charity work

There are plenty of charities nowadays who are always on the lookout for new staff and happy to pay them to drum up support. Call centres offer flexible shift work and as long as you work a minimum number of hours each week, the days are up to you!

Freelance writing

Article writer, proofreader, copywriter, editor - there are literally thousands of writing jobs out there and plenty that are either one-off gigs or are hiring on a freelance basis. These are jobs which will have deadlines, but as long as you stick to them and produce quality work you can do them at 5 am or 11 pm - it’s up to you. This frees up lots of time to get down and concentrate on your own creative work.

Teaching

If you’ve got a writing qualification or lots of experience and feel like you could help others, you could share your knowledge by setting up a teaching course. Alternatively, if you’ve got a university degree or other qualifications you can set yourself up as a private tutor and work as much or as little as you like.

Cab driving

Cab driving is a great way to earn some money and you can choose your hours and work when you want. You need a licence, an insured and registered vehicle, but the rest is up to you.

Food delivery

Food delivery is another great side job. It won’t earn you megabucks but you will mostly be working at night, it’s massively easy and you are completely autonomous. You could even take a dictaphone with you and dictate some of your book into it while you drive!

Security/ night work

Night work is great and jobs such as security might not be for everyone but if it sounds like your cup of tea, it will pay the bills and free up your days for writing. You can even do some writing on the job!

So while these may not be your dream jobs - if you aren’t making as much money through writing as you need to at the moment, these side jobs can help you make ends meet, while still giving you plenty of time to write - and what’s not to love about that?!

Do any of these jobs appeal to you?

Right now, I'm a peer mentor at the County Behavioral Health Department. It's only part-time, but I love what I'm doing.  I may just consider going into mental health, but am not sure what.  But the one job still isn't a lot. I'm not sure what else to do on the side though.  I've worked so many years in retail  abut am not sure I want to go back there. And when I was fired from a restaurant job in 2001, I vowed never to work in the food business again. And so far that has been true.  There is one bar I've gone to regularly for the karaoke, but haven't been going to lately. Since I can't have alcohol, I'm not sure working for a bar is appropriate for me 🙂 

Since I work in the morning to afternoon, graveyard shifts are out.  Before I was hired on as mentor and after I had completed my training classes, I briefly worked the graveyard shift at a candy factory through  temp agency. It was only for a while and I then went back to working swing shift, which I had been doing off and an. I have not worked at the factory for nearly a year now. 

I've often felt as an introvert, that my career choices are limited. Some people have disagreed with this, however. Ia hate the stereotype that says introverts should only do work from home, a phrase that has triggered my anxiety.

I've never wanted to be a teacher and have not been much of a leader, but now I wonder if I should start a group for writing, since none can be currently found in my town and I hate the idea of driving 50 miles to the nearest ones.  I've posted on a Facebook page we have for happenings in our town, asking if anyone is interested in starting such a group, but have gotten no response.

What would you do?

BTW, my memoir writing class finished on Wednesday night and the instructor will be offering an advanced memoir writing class in the fall, working on a longer piece with the goal of getting published.