“Don’t quit your day job.”
Every artist, comedian, musician or other creative has heard this at some point. It’s well-meaning advice in some cases, but sometimes given in a less friendly tone. This coming week, however, I am not taking that advice.
Yes, I’m leaving my current place of employment. Without going into too much detail, it was a good run, but there’s a time when things come to a natural stopping point and I felt that I was there. And while I’m not the first desk jockey with dreams of leaving their office with dramatic flair, I haven’t been the first writer to also shuffle papers during the day.
So, both as inspiration and a little brain storming for myself, here are some famous writers who started out pushing the 9-5. I stumbled on this interesting article, but here are some of my favorites!
Arthur Conan Doyle started his career as a surgeon. This actually makes a lot of sense considering Holmes’s famous sidekick was a surgeon as well. According to some lore, Holmes was actually based off of another surgeon that Doyle met who could analyze people and learn things like their hobbies, professions and living conditions.
Jack London was a self-proclaimed Oyster-Pirate, stealing oysters from oyster farms and selling them himself. Eventually, his piracy turned to honest sailing work that probably inspired his many adventure stories at sea.
Charles Dickens was a factory worker for a period of time. And by “period of time” I mean when he was 12-Years-Old and working in a factory. I can’t help but feel like this inspired the dynamic to the group of orphans in Oliver Twist. By the way, the name of one of his coworkers? Bob Fagin.
Jack Kerouac had a number of odd jobs, including dishwasher, night guard, fire lookout, deck hand and rail brake operator.
Stephen King– Famously, Steven King was a high school janitor while writing Carrie, what would become one of his classics.
Obviously, some of these aren’t very practical for me (though, Oyster Pirate sounds like a great career choice). But in a very real way, it’s comforting to know that there’s no one singular path in life. Whether that means you drop out of an Ivy League school and become a teacher like Robert Frost or start your career as a Theatre Critic writing in his spare time like Bram Stroker, if you have drive–and a lot of luck–you’re only a few steps away from the job of your dreams. For now I’ll just have to keep sending out resumes and keep writing in the early hours before the rest of the world wakes.
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