A lot of us are writers because we don't like doing anything else. A new book, "Don't Quit Your Day Job," features 23 authors reminiscing about their former jobs.
One of the featured writers is Winston Groom ("Forrest Gump"). As reported on NPR, "Groom says he had never realized how many different jobs he had held -- and what he had gotten out of them -- until he started looking back. His first job as a newsboy taught him he wasn't an early riser; his work in construction taught him he didn't like hard, manual labor; and the Army gave him enough experience to write a book about -- his first novel, in fact, "Better Times Than These."
"And that’s what got me out of the newspaper racket," says Groom, who had ended up a reporter at the now-defunct Washington Star. "That book launched my career. That was 30 years ago, and I haven’t worked a day since.”
I had a few jobs before becoming a full-time writer, but nothing all that colorful: Circulation department at a local newspaper, writing case studies for educational research companies, and doing PR for an airline.
The worst one actually was working behind the meat counter at a deli. I was (and am) a vegetarian, and had no idea what any of the meats were (the signs identifying them were facing toward the customer, so they weren't much use to me). I didn't suffer too long--I was fired on my second day. And come to think of it my last real job was almost 30 years ago and I haven't worked a day since, either. Hooray!
(To get my free report, "The seven things that are stopping you from writing--and how to overcome them," click here: http://goo.gl/bWjb)
