Tom Clancy was an insurance salesman before he became a best-selling novelist. But taking time to write wasn't that popular at home. In an article at the amctv.com blog (here), this is what he revealed:
"What I did was take time away from how I earned my living. My wife gave me hell – ‘Why are you doing this?’ – but she doesn’t complain anymore."
His wife admitted as much: “He was writing at home every weekend. I told him he should go back to selling insurance – I’ve eaten those words a few times. But once I read the book, I changed my mind. Tom said he’d be happy if it would sell 5,000 copies, but I told him not to worry – it’d sell a lot more than that.”
You can succeed without support from family and friends, but it sure helps to have it. How to get it is the topic of one chapter of my “Your Writing Coach” book (available now at book stores and online). Of course it all starts with you--you have to demonstrate to them and yourself that you're serious about your writing. One way to start: set aside one period every week, maybe a few hours on the weekend, that you will be writing and that you will give up only in case of a real emergency. Family members may still grumble but they will also start to respect your passion.
