Brendan Cody’s Blog

Once more unto the breach

May 30th, 2008

Earning money has been interfering with my writing career again. I use the word career with irony, of course.

About a week ago I got frustrated with the software work again. It had become a series of short, recurrent deadlines and tracking down annoying bugs which — ultimately — were beyond my control to fix anyhow. This reminded me why I want out of this business. Worse: I was making no headway on the novel. I had recently been thinking about something a friend had said to me this year: “Why not just take three months off and do it?” It was a good suggestion. I had it in the back of my mind to do it, but software projects tend to roll on and on, and scheduling such a large block of free time is awkward, but not impossible.

So last week I put aside my fears of upsetting my clients, and armed with frustration, I told them I was taking three months off for other work. I had enough money saved to carry me through it, so why not? It is only my being self-employed that gives me the flexibilty to do this. I don’t know how I’d do it if I had a permanent employer. Scribbling in evenings and weekends is okay if you can work at writing that way (and most writing advisors would tell you it is a crucial skill to acquire), but I just find I need a long straight run of writing to get it finished. All the threads have to be running through my mind at once, so I can pursue them the next day with continuation, rather than being interrupted with an emergancy bug fix that could break my stride for days.
I just find it too hard to maintain the momentum otherwise.

So here I am, self-umemployed (as a friend terms it) for a while. It’s Friday. The bank holiday weekend is here and I have the whole glorious summer months to pen Broken Evolution, draft final. Draft initial of Zero Day might even get a look-in to.

Bring it!

Entry Filed under: Observation & Musing