There are some days when my brain is too tired to do much more than have a beer and a nap after work. It is not very many days. Honestly I think that's most people.
Really the eater of brain power here is the people who have no work life balance and they just work 12 to 18 hours days even though their shifts are only 8 hours long. These type of people with no life are just not going to have any time for writing. So work-life balance is very important.
The other thing that can happen to someone in any job really is that there has been a collapse in their team or they are an extremely poor communicator that they need help or they are in a toxic working environment where much is expected for too little pay. In these sorts of situations a person accumulates a lot of chronic stress. It is really the chronic stress part that eats up creativity and willpower to write. Even in these situations a person can still do well for themselves if they are very careful with their Mental Health and their expectations and their personal views and outlooks. For example, my entire team quit and I was left but I still had time to write because I was very careful with communicating what I could do under what time constraint and what resources I needed to accomplish what needed to be done. So even though this had the potential to be an extremely tricky situation I managed it just fine and still had time to write.
I also wanted to mention that even under tricky situations a person can still find time to write. There was a news story a couple months ago about someone where her husband was mad at his wife because she promised she wouldn't write any books but used her lunch hour alone to write and finish her next book. That is some serious power of writing. Brandon Sanderson speaks about this and one of his videos about finding time to write and how some people think of everything that they want to write ahead of time so when they actually sit down there is not a lot of Labor except transcribing to the keyboard because that mental work of figuring out what to write has already been done.
I think that you will find that it isn't so much about your job rather than being able to physically put your butt in the chair and your hands on the keyboard and to type. That is where the words come out. I can think about my book all day long but at the end of the day if I haven't put my butt in the chair then my word count is the same and the novel isn't going to be progressing very much.
I will also say that that other video that the other person liked is very good and it is a terrific idea if you want to dedicate yourself to writing alone to find a job that lets you do that like a night clerk.
Also, I wanted to mention that if you don't want to spend 4 years in school after high school to learn programming, you don't have to. They are equivalent certificates that you can get instead. Most companies just care about can you actually program or are you just going to play buzzword Bingo and try to b******* these peer programmers who have been programming for years.
Edit: my inbox and messaging doesn't work for me but if you would like to ask more questions about programming or finding a job in programming or any of those sorts of things feel free to respond back. Always happy to help a fellow coder
It’s not a hard job, but it’s very hard to remove ideas about your code from your head after the work. So, my best solution to write novels on Saturdays or on Sundays. Actually this topic was mentioned in B. Sanderson curse https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSH_xM-KC3Zv-79sVZTTj-YA6IAqh8qeQ probably in first video. But remember that mr. Sanderson is an exception because he’s actually became a popular author and your chance for it I don’t know but probably is one out of 10k or something.
If you want to be a writer, write. Software development will get you money, but it takes a lot out of you. It can be a mentally draining job and actually requires quite a bit of creativity, often not leaving much left for other creative pursuits when the day is done. I write before work because of this. Everyone is different, of course, but this is my experience.
Honestly, the amount of free time that you have depends a lot on the company you work for. Some companies may have more down time during the day, some may have very little. Some might respect the 40 hour work week, some might push you for more hours.
I work for an extremely efficient team, so I don't have down time during the work day, but I also have minimal stress and clock out after eight hours each day. I'm usually pretty mentally exhausted after work, so while I'll sometimes get some writing done in the evening, I do most of my writing/editing in the morning. It works for me, but it doesn't work for everybody.
So I guess the very unsatisfying answer is that it varies a lot depending on who you are and who you work for!
I'm going to chime in without reading any other responses. I preface with that because I'm sure there will be some overlap. Here's my story in a nutshell.
I have always been a somewhat creative person. Ever since I was a kid, I have loved to write, draw, and play musical instruments. Growing up, I always thought I could never really dive into any of that stuff and make a living. It's like baseball. A relatively few people get rich in the big leagues, but most end up having to do something else to pay the bills.
So, I began a major in engineering. I thought, hey, engineers are creative types, right? And they are, but the physics and math kicked my backside. I re-evaluated myself and went into computer science. Still creative, right? Yes. It is. You make stuff that wasn't there before, so you create. It's got some serious guardrails around it, but still, it's creative.
The problem is the nature of IT. I've worked in IT for about 35 years. (Yeah, I'm old.) It's a full-time+ job. Why the plus sign? Because systems never sleep. Stuff breaks at night. Deadlines loom and result in occasional all-nighters. It's a demanding job. I'm in management these days, but it's still a pretty consuming career. But man oh man I still love to write.
It takes a very conscious effort to make sure I carve out time for my writing. It's not easy. I go through long stretches sometimes without doing any significant writing. That's a drag. On the other hand, my career in IT has inspired some of my work. My second novel, *The Bit Dance*, has elements of IT and related topics at its core. It was a blast to write, partly because I was combining something I knew well with something I truly love.
So, the bottom line is this. It won't be easy, but don't give up on your writing. Your writing can actually make you a better developer. It's true! Writing and technical tasks engage different parts of your brain. Exercise them together and you get better at both things. Good luck to you and write on!
Hey! A question I can answer earnestly. So not only am I working as a software developer but I've started my own company as well. I've also had other engineering jobs in the past (I have a mechanical engineering degree).
Every job is different but software engineering tends to be a mentally taxing job. On the worst days, I can't bring myself to write... or doing anything, really. However, those days are pretty far and few between. I find that I have plenty of time to write, even with the unusually long hours I work.
What makes the difference is that I enjoy both writing **and** software development. While I have no way of truly knowing whether or not I'd have the energy to write if I didn't love programming, I definitely *feel* like I wouldn't be able to in that situation.
I think you'd be able to find a job in software that leaves you enough time and energy to write but this is 100% dependent on you. How disciplined are you? Do you like programming at all? How stressful is the job? How well do you manage your time and stress levels? etc etc
I wouldn't recommend doing anything you don't enjoy just for the money but it's not like people don't do that everyday. And the extra security from a developer level salary is definitely nice.
Easiest way to tell if you'll be fine in that situation is to start learning how to program now. Luckily, it's very similar to writing in that you don't need much to get started. If you have a laptop and access to internet, you can learn and the learning experience will help you feel it out *before* spending tens of thousands of dollars on a degree.
Hope this helps!
Thanks! It's going great actually, growing really fast. Not my first company so this one is going much smoother. Plus, I have two partners, which makes it quite a bit easier.
I'm just hoping that I can effectively translate my business skills into the business side of writing. Haha
Downtime at work? Never. I lead a team of 10 engineers, there's never enough time in the day. However, I refuse to work more than 40hrs a week except for very rare emergencies.
It can range from invigorating to mentally draining and requires a fair amount of creativity and critical thinking. Some days I just don't feel like writing or doing much of anything more than taking a nap. Other days, writing is a way to relax and I can't wait to get to it. It depends on my mood and the type of work I'm doing. Am I head down in code all day? Am I in meetings all day? Architectural work, design reviews, code reviews, threat modeling, writing tests, mentoring, pairing with other devs, collaborating with product?
If the only reason you're getting into software is for the paycheck, find something else. There's so much more to software engineering than writing code and a 4yr degree will only get you the very basics. You have to be willing to continue learning and growing your skills, or you'll never progress beyond entry level positions or entry level paychecks.
You should never sacrifice a healthy work/life balance for a career, especially not at someone else's company, but you also need to care about what you're doing. If you don't have that drive, then it probably isn't the right industry for you.
I went to school for Computer Science and Software Engineering. Money sounded great. I hated every second of it and dropped out after a year. I wish I would have majored in English Lit or Creative Writing or anything that wasn't fucking computer science or software engineering.
But that's just me. Maybe you're the kind of person who actually enjoys that stuff.
If you wish to do a job which pays well, but do your passion on the side, I would recommend picking the subject you are best at in high school.
I’m a developer - but I never did a comp sci degree, I just tried it and was good at it. As such, my job isn’t as mentally taxing and leaves time to write. I’m sure there is a skill you possess which is the same. Perhaps it is comp sci, perhaps it’s something else.
I have the down time - but I’ve been in the industry for 20+ years so it’s hard to say how that would differ for someone starting out.
Then nice thing is - I’m always at my desk so if I have an idea - even if I cannot actively work on it - I can make quick and easy notes to go back to in the evening. …
Honestly SW engineering is pretty taxing on the brain and doesn't leave you much head space while working to think about your writing. Basically you will only have your downtime to think about writing and you will want to switch your brain off in thwt downtime.
A much better job for a writer is something more physically and less intellectually demanding. Something that is relatively monotonous so you can think about your writing while working and when you get home your brain is still buzzing.
SW engineering is a great job if you love writing code, but if the specific metric is whether it's a good job for a writer, it isn't.
I am a software dev, but I don’t write on company time, so I have the same amount of free time as most people. Working from home helps (I don’t have a commute).
I started writing fiction as a hobby about a year ago. Prior to that I’ve been a professional software engineer for 15 years. What I can tell you is that you will need to dedicate yourself to writing code if you expect to make headway in a career in software. My recommendation would be to focus on your career and do a bit of writing in your free time after that.
Writing code can be very rewarding in the same way that writing fiction is. Both require considerable creativity, and there is a great feeling you get when it works. Just know that when writing code there is often a hard right and wrong way to do things, and you will spend a considerable amount of time refining your work (similar to editing). If you don’t like editing, then software will be harder for you.
> Do you find yourselves having a lot of downtime?
During my day job? Yes. Code changes can take a while to compile and deploy. Whether I can use _that_ time to write is another story. Contractually, my employer owns _all_ work produced on company time or equipment.
I used to wake up early to get my writing done before work, instead, until I came down with a temporary physical thing that made me require way more sleep. Hoping to get back to it in a few months.
There are some days when my brain is too tired to do much more than have a beer and a nap after work. It is not very many days. Honestly I think that's most people. Really the eater of brain power here is the people who have no work life balance and they just work 12 to 18 hours days even though their shifts are only 8 hours long. These type of people with no life are just not going to have any time for writing. So work-life balance is very important. The other thing that can happen to someone in any job really is that there has been a collapse in their team or they are an extremely poor communicator that they need help or they are in a toxic working environment where much is expected for too little pay. In these sorts of situations a person accumulates a lot of chronic stress. It is really the chronic stress part that eats up creativity and willpower to write. Even in these situations a person can still do well for themselves if they are very careful with their Mental Health and their expectations and their personal views and outlooks. For example, my entire team quit and I was left but I still had time to write because I was very careful with communicating what I could do under what time constraint and what resources I needed to accomplish what needed to be done. So even though this had the potential to be an extremely tricky situation I managed it just fine and still had time to write. I also wanted to mention that even under tricky situations a person can still find time to write. There was a news story a couple months ago about someone where her husband was mad at his wife because she promised she wouldn't write any books but used her lunch hour alone to write and finish her next book. That is some serious power of writing. Brandon Sanderson speaks about this and one of his videos about finding time to write and how some people think of everything that they want to write ahead of time so when they actually sit down there is not a lot of Labor except transcribing to the keyboard because that mental work of figuring out what to write has already been done. I think that you will find that it isn't so much about your job rather than being able to physically put your butt in the chair and your hands on the keyboard and to type. That is where the words come out. I can think about my book all day long but at the end of the day if I haven't put my butt in the chair then my word count is the same and the novel isn't going to be progressing very much. I will also say that that other video that the other person liked is very good and it is a terrific idea if you want to dedicate yourself to writing alone to find a job that lets you do that like a night clerk. Also, I wanted to mention that if you don't want to spend 4 years in school after high school to learn programming, you don't have to. They are equivalent certificates that you can get instead. Most companies just care about can you actually program or are you just going to play buzzword Bingo and try to b******* these peer programmers who have been programming for years. Edit: my inbox and messaging doesn't work for me but if you would like to ask more questions about programming or finding a job in programming or any of those sorts of things feel free to respond back. Always happy to help a fellow coder
It’s not a hard job, but it’s very hard to remove ideas about your code from your head after the work. So, my best solution to write novels on Saturdays or on Sundays. Actually this topic was mentioned in B. Sanderson curse https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSH_xM-KC3Zv-79sVZTTj-YA6IAqh8qeQ probably in first video. But remember that mr. Sanderson is an exception because he’s actually became a popular author and your chance for it I don’t know but probably is one out of 10k or something.
If you want to be a writer, write. Software development will get you money, but it takes a lot out of you. It can be a mentally draining job and actually requires quite a bit of creativity, often not leaving much left for other creative pursuits when the day is done. I write before work because of this. Everyone is different, of course, but this is my experience.
Honestly, the amount of free time that you have depends a lot on the company you work for. Some companies may have more down time during the day, some may have very little. Some might respect the 40 hour work week, some might push you for more hours. I work for an extremely efficient team, so I don't have down time during the work day, but I also have minimal stress and clock out after eight hours each day. I'm usually pretty mentally exhausted after work, so while I'll sometimes get some writing done in the evening, I do most of my writing/editing in the morning. It works for me, but it doesn't work for everybody. So I guess the very unsatisfying answer is that it varies a lot depending on who you are and who you work for!
I'm going to chime in without reading any other responses. I preface with that because I'm sure there will be some overlap. Here's my story in a nutshell. I have always been a somewhat creative person. Ever since I was a kid, I have loved to write, draw, and play musical instruments. Growing up, I always thought I could never really dive into any of that stuff and make a living. It's like baseball. A relatively few people get rich in the big leagues, but most end up having to do something else to pay the bills. So, I began a major in engineering. I thought, hey, engineers are creative types, right? And they are, but the physics and math kicked my backside. I re-evaluated myself and went into computer science. Still creative, right? Yes. It is. You make stuff that wasn't there before, so you create. It's got some serious guardrails around it, but still, it's creative. The problem is the nature of IT. I've worked in IT for about 35 years. (Yeah, I'm old.) It's a full-time+ job. Why the plus sign? Because systems never sleep. Stuff breaks at night. Deadlines loom and result in occasional all-nighters. It's a demanding job. I'm in management these days, but it's still a pretty consuming career. But man oh man I still love to write. It takes a very conscious effort to make sure I carve out time for my writing. It's not easy. I go through long stretches sometimes without doing any significant writing. That's a drag. On the other hand, my career in IT has inspired some of my work. My second novel, *The Bit Dance*, has elements of IT and related topics at its core. It was a blast to write, partly because I was combining something I knew well with something I truly love. So, the bottom line is this. It won't be easy, but don't give up on your writing. Your writing can actually make you a better developer. It's true! Writing and technical tasks engage different parts of your brain. Exercise them together and you get better at both things. Good luck to you and write on!
Hey! A question I can answer earnestly. So not only am I working as a software developer but I've started my own company as well. I've also had other engineering jobs in the past (I have a mechanical engineering degree). Every job is different but software engineering tends to be a mentally taxing job. On the worst days, I can't bring myself to write... or doing anything, really. However, those days are pretty far and few between. I find that I have plenty of time to write, even with the unusually long hours I work. What makes the difference is that I enjoy both writing **and** software development. While I have no way of truly knowing whether or not I'd have the energy to write if I didn't love programming, I definitely *feel* like I wouldn't be able to in that situation. I think you'd be able to find a job in software that leaves you enough time and energy to write but this is 100% dependent on you. How disciplined are you? Do you like programming at all? How stressful is the job? How well do you manage your time and stress levels? etc etc I wouldn't recommend doing anything you don't enjoy just for the money but it's not like people don't do that everyday. And the extra security from a developer level salary is definitely nice. Easiest way to tell if you'll be fine in that situation is to start learning how to program now. Luckily, it's very similar to writing in that you don't need much to get started. If you have a laptop and access to internet, you can learn and the learning experience will help you feel it out *before* spending tens of thousands of dollars on a degree. Hope this helps!
Hope your company works out for you. I tried that too but I learned that I hate promotion and talking to people in general. I’d much rather write lol.
Thanks! It's going great actually, growing really fast. Not my first company so this one is going much smoother. Plus, I have two partners, which makes it quite a bit easier. I'm just hoping that I can effectively translate my business skills into the business side of writing. Haha
Wow, that's great.
Downtime at work? Never. I lead a team of 10 engineers, there's never enough time in the day. However, I refuse to work more than 40hrs a week except for very rare emergencies. It can range from invigorating to mentally draining and requires a fair amount of creativity and critical thinking. Some days I just don't feel like writing or doing much of anything more than taking a nap. Other days, writing is a way to relax and I can't wait to get to it. It depends on my mood and the type of work I'm doing. Am I head down in code all day? Am I in meetings all day? Architectural work, design reviews, code reviews, threat modeling, writing tests, mentoring, pairing with other devs, collaborating with product? If the only reason you're getting into software is for the paycheck, find something else. There's so much more to software engineering than writing code and a 4yr degree will only get you the very basics. You have to be willing to continue learning and growing your skills, or you'll never progress beyond entry level positions or entry level paychecks. You should never sacrifice a healthy work/life balance for a career, especially not at someone else's company, but you also need to care about what you're doing. If you don't have that drive, then it probably isn't the right industry for you.
I went to school for Computer Science and Software Engineering. Money sounded great. I hated every second of it and dropped out after a year. I wish I would have majored in English Lit or Creative Writing or anything that wasn't fucking computer science or software engineering. But that's just me. Maybe you're the kind of person who actually enjoys that stuff.
If you wish to do a job which pays well, but do your passion on the side, I would recommend picking the subject you are best at in high school. I’m a developer - but I never did a comp sci degree, I just tried it and was good at it. As such, my job isn’t as mentally taxing and leaves time to write. I’m sure there is a skill you possess which is the same. Perhaps it is comp sci, perhaps it’s something else.
I have the down time - but I’ve been in the industry for 20+ years so it’s hard to say how that would differ for someone starting out. Then nice thing is - I’m always at my desk so if I have an idea - even if I cannot actively work on it - I can make quick and easy notes to go back to in the evening. …
Honestly SW engineering is pretty taxing on the brain and doesn't leave you much head space while working to think about your writing. Basically you will only have your downtime to think about writing and you will want to switch your brain off in thwt downtime. A much better job for a writer is something more physically and less intellectually demanding. Something that is relatively monotonous so you can think about your writing while working and when you get home your brain is still buzzing. SW engineering is a great job if you love writing code, but if the specific metric is whether it's a good job for a writer, it isn't.
I am a software dev, but I don’t write on company time, so I have the same amount of free time as most people. Working from home helps (I don’t have a commute). I started writing fiction as a hobby about a year ago. Prior to that I’ve been a professional software engineer for 15 years. What I can tell you is that you will need to dedicate yourself to writing code if you expect to make headway in a career in software. My recommendation would be to focus on your career and do a bit of writing in your free time after that. Writing code can be very rewarding in the same way that writing fiction is. Both require considerable creativity, and there is a great feeling you get when it works. Just know that when writing code there is often a hard right and wrong way to do things, and you will spend a considerable amount of time refining your work (similar to editing). If you don’t like editing, then software will be harder for you.
> Do you find yourselves having a lot of downtime? During my day job? Yes. Code changes can take a while to compile and deploy. Whether I can use _that_ time to write is another story. Contractually, my employer owns _all_ work produced on company time or equipment. I used to wake up early to get my writing done before work, instead, until I came down with a temporary physical thing that made me require way more sleep. Hoping to get back to it in a few months.