Hey, I saw a lot of threads about 20 somethings in school (left that ages ago), college (that's a past life as well) and Uni. Which, I never entertained.
However I work full time, single, live on my own and I'm well and truely in the adult world. How many other 20 somethings out there are the same as me? Already on the career path to oblivion?
I appear to do most of my writing at work because the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of another computer again! And I nearly always get inspiration when I'm in the middle of something major at work...!
I'm 24, work full time in IT Data comms in Ireland. What about you?
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Yes, if you rub it on the back of a duck it goes quite fast...
50,369 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 05 57
I've put off participation in NaNo until this year, because previously I've always had exams in November (Australian school/uni system). I'm working full time at the moment, in a university library (which is going to make all my research nice and easy!)
I'm hoping it'll be a lot easier to write a novel while working full time than it would be to do one while at uni. Even though full-time work takes more hours out of your day, the hours you DO have spare are completely free (no un-started essays looming over your head).
I still live at home with my family though, so at least I don't have to cook for myself. Or do laundry, heh.
----------"A novel can best be defined as a long piece of prose with something wrong with it."
- Neil Gaiman, Introduction to American Gods.
0 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 06 18
Yeah I work full time. Share a house with a guy and a girl and (currently) share a room with my boyfriend, who has been assuring me for 2 months that he's looking for a place of his own. He likes his music (making, listening, mashing-up, mixing) so November could be a trying month... Oh, and did I mention he doesn't cook?
Ach I'm just whining really - I love living with him (although we're both in agreement that it shouldn't be a permanent thing!). But I'm thinking that during November I'm going to need my space, and it could get a bit tense.
----------"There used to be a greying tower alone on the sea,
You became the light in the darkness for me"
50,008 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 06 19
*waves hand* I'm a full-timer as well. Unfortunately, I can't write during work because I'm right in the front office, but I found out last year that I can manage to type around 900 words during my lunch break. I've already warned my co-workers that I will be taking over a corner of the break room table with my laptop and depending on how things go, won't be speaking to them from 1:00 to 2:00 every day.
44,153 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 06 22
I work full time, as well, but my job has kind of odd hours (1-9), so I'm planning on waking up earlier in the day, and heading to the library.
I participated last year, but had two part-time jobs, and didn't achieve my goal. This year, with steady hours, I think that having a full-time job might make things easier.
50,020 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 06 34
I work full time on a weird schedule. I work 2 days, off 2 days, work 3, off 2, work 2, off 3. That's two weeks and it just continues. 12 hour shifts everyday. My writing schedule is weird but I pulled it off last year, I can do it this year! Very excited!
----------Check out my blog!
www.itsjustabbey.com
NaNoWriMo '05-'07: Failboat
NaNoWriMo '08: Beast Within (retitled: Child of Judas) Winner!
NaNoWriMo '09: Untitled
10,736 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 06 35
Lots of different situations and working hours! Sometimes living on my own can be a pain. You can always find something else to do that isn't sitting down and getting on with writing. Hoovering, cleaning, some interesting flash game on the computer...!
Good thing about having a laptop for work is I can keep all my files in one place, rather than spread between two or three different machines!
----------Yes, if you rub it on the back of a duck it goes quite fast...
63,535 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 07 20
Yup, I work full time as well. It's mostly 9-5 stuff, but I can be on call as well and it can be pretty full on.
This is my first attempt at Nano - hopefully it'll just be a lot of fun and I find myself rushing home to write a whole lot of silly stuff, rather than having to stop myself from procrastinating. =)
----------Authors are judged by strange capricious rules:
the great ones are thought mad,
and the small ones are thought fools.
(Alexander Pope)
59,698 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 07 35
I work full time: Office manager and I'm in school full time. Have my own place and all that jazz too. Nano gives me a moment to escape all of it. I miss the days when my only bill was a pre paid cell phone. :\
Trina
----------2009- Problems
2008-My Slightly Obsessive Fascination with Caleb Martin (winner!)
2007-Antisocial: adj (winner!)
2006-Kizzy's Chaos (winner!)
24,285 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 07 43
I work full-time as a graphic designer. I might write a bit in my email (I love to save drafts in gmail. I have drafts for everything.) But I probably won't do too much.
Good point though about working more than while in school, but it's so true that when your home there's no more "work" to do. Minus cleaning..and feeding myself. But that has to happen no matter what ;)
----------You can sponsor my first novel!
52,262 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 08 56
I work full time for a nonprofit. I have two roommates, both of whom I met through last year's NaNo.
----------"Writing a novel is pathetic and boring. Anyone sensible hates it. It's all you can do to not play Snood all afternoon."--Steve Hely, How I Became a Famous Novelist
50,530 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 09 08
I've been working fulltime since November last year, teaching at a private school. My schedules vary from week to week, the hours are very irregular as well, which is, to tell the truth, extremely annoying. I cannot plan anything. I'm passively looking into job offers, but in times like these I'm happy just to have a job even if it's not ideal.
Anyhow, I just hope I'll be able to combine my job with NaNo. I still live with my parents so I don't really have to worry about rent or anything, thank god!!
----------we'll look like old movies people walking in Stockholm
52,338 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 09 18
Work full time as web content editor (well... in training). I thought I'd enjoy the job but it sucks. Only been there two weeks as well.
My boyfriend and I moved in together in June this year so I'm in the middle of feeling very grown up as we handle bills and rent and things but also still quite young. Especially since my job's with a new start-up business and there's only 3 other members of staff in the office and the nearest one to my age is 35.
As I spend my lunch hour out of the office though, in November I'll take my laptop with me, house myself up in some yet-to-be-chosen nearby coffee shop/cafe and use it to write.
----------Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality
50,119 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 10 02
That's me!
I've been out of school for over two years now (finished undergrad but passed on grad school) and working full time for twenty-two months. Last year I was living on my own but was in the middle of wedding planning, so my brain was totally scrambled. Now that the wedding is done, I've transferred to a new job with the same organization, we've moved much closer to our families, and we've bought a house, I hope to be able to settle down to some serious writing.
I work 8-ish to 5-ish in a law enforcement-related office. I probably could bring in my laptop and write over lunch, but I doubt I will. The idea of heading out of the office to a coffee shop to write during lunch is a good one, and I may just do that.
50,565 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 10 03
Working full time as a process engineer, 6:30 to 3:30 (which is nice cuz the banks are still open when I'm done, but sucks cuz I need to go to bed by 9:30 if I want to function properly and not fall asleep at my desk before my supervisor walks in on me).
It's definitely a lot easier doing Nano while working full-time as opposed to being in university. I can write ~1000-2000 words during the lunch break (thanks to that crazy online writing program - I forget what it's called; the one that will delete your work if you stop writing for a certain length of time) and then after work if I want. Weekends are great for catch-up. I can usually have an 8000 word weekend if I'm not busy doing anything.
I live by myself so no one gets subjected to the nano-craziness except for my computer (which may go flying out of my 7th-story apartment depending on how much it acts up; it hates me).
5,064 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 11 03
I just turned 20, working full time, but am still living at home to support my mother and brother.
Work is dead here during the winter, so I'll be taking a notebook to work and writing when I don't have customers. I'll be typing before and after work as well.
50,095 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 11 11
Weird! Where do you work? I ask because most of our people (EMTs, paramedics, and dispatchers) work 12 hour days on a front half/back half schedule (3 days on, 4 off / 4 days on, 3 off).
And yes, I'm a full-timer. I'm an ambulance dispatcher. I work 10 hour days, Monday through Thursday, 0900-1900.
----------[witty description and request for free coffee go here]
10,736 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 12 07
Weird! Where do you work? I ask because most of our people (EMTs, paramedics, and dispatchers) work 12 hour days on a front half/back half schedule (3 days on, 4 off / 4 days on, 3 off).
And yes, I'm a full-timer. I'm an ambulance dispatcher. I work 10 hour days, Monday through Thursday, 0900-1900.
I used to do something similar. Two 12 hour days, followed by two 12 hour nights followed by four-ish days off. Then the whole thing started again. It almost killed me I did it for nearly 4 years. Moved onto 7am - 330pm shifts and now I'm all about the 9 to 5. No such thing as rush hour traffic out here so I'm cool with it :)
----------Yes, if you rub it on the back of a duck it goes quite fast...
39,293 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 12 35
Technically I'm part-time, but I have a feeling that during November I'll be closer to full time. I work on a stock team, so my hours are determined by whether or not they have need of me, and with November being smack in the middle of holiday season, I imagine I'll be needed a lot. Even now I always get asked to stay later and we've just started getting holiday stuff in. But yeah, I'm not in school - I just work. So even though I'm not full-time, this is what will be competing for my time with NaNo.
Adding that this is not a career; just a time waster/money maker until I get married and have kids to stay home with and/or manage to get published. ;D
----------Original Fiction/NaNo Journal | tiesuchaknot.livejournal.com
"Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man's life, must place him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that when it is untied, the whole man is visible." ~Leo Tolstoy
60,133 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 12 33
I work full-time as a web developer, but I telecommute. So, I basically work out of my apartment. I still work 8-5, M-F, but there is a certain amount of flexibility for if inspiration should strike. That and I don't have to hassle with silly commutes!
53,265 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 14 54
I'm 23, I live in apartment with 4 roommates, I work full time at a computer security firm where I do customer service. I have the fortune to have nice bosses, who allow me to do whatever I want when my work is done.
HOWEVER. I have a terrible distraction complex, and there is nothing more distracting than the internet. I'll sit down intending to pump out some nice word countage, and end up reading the news, on Facebook, blogging, or who knows what else. Ack! Focus is my biggest issue.
But hopefully next year at this time I"ll be in grad school! And still NaNo-ing. =)
----------"So...you defeated a thousand enemy warriors on a single day?"
"It was only 982." He blinked. "But we weren't really counting."
15,150 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 15 02
I work full time in a call center environment. I have just run into a snag that I realize my best writing time is late at night in the dark when everyone else is in bed and I'm furiously typing away at my laptop. Which means waking up at 7 AM each morning for work is NOT going to be a pleasant experience.
And now I'm going to have to start cutting back on possible caffeine intake as my boyfriend and I are trying to put away money towards the next house.
----------50,162 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 15 18
You could say I work full-time since it ranges from 30-50 hours a week over 5/6 days. I'm a waitress and my times vary from early 6am starts or 2am finishes... it's hard to try to find any time to write, because when I'm home I just want to curl up in front of the tv, but I managed it last year, so I'll manage it again this year.
----------www.justifiedlunacy.blogspot.com
32,965 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 15 22
I'll be 20 come November, and I work full time in Edinburgh as a hotel receptionist. Which means I have shift work, and odd hours, so here's to staying up till 4 in the morning writing after a late shift!!! Thank God it gets quiet come November/December, so I don't have to worry about being so stressed out.
50,213 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 15 46
I work beyond full time! I'm a full time 8th grade U.S. History teacher at a freaking Charter School (No union = long hours + not enough pay) and I feel like a full time wife. The beginning of November is rough because I'll be grading trimester exams, but after that I think I'll manage. I'm also participating in a professional development seminar (online) during November, so that will take me away...I'm committed to doing it ALL though! The husband will just have to cook and clean for once.
----------2009: The Greatest Gift that I Can Give You (Literary Fiction) WINNER!!! :)
(Stuck in cold, cold Boston. :( )
21,095 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 16 47
Yep, i work 8-5 but i work an hour from where i live so im afk 6-7 >_< But.... thats what weekends are for! :D
3,246 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 18 16
Hah! Full time. I WISH I could afford to only work full time, as right now I'm working basically a full-time job and a half, at two part time jobs. Can you say 56 hours of work a week, 7 days a week with no days off? Nine hour work days with only 35 minutes of break? Waking up at 3:30AM and getting home 12 hours later??? I sure can. Aaand I've only been at it for four or five weeks so far, and I have to survive this for at least ten months... And I'm still not making enough to pay all the bills, although I'm supporting my boyfriend while he's at school.
Really, this is all just temporary (hopefully). Eventually I'll either go back and get further training to get a job in a career path I actually want instead of busting my ass in endless micro-managed, minimum wage, manual labour positions (please please please please), or find a job that I can already do that doesn't kill me (does one exist that could sustain me..). OR I could just become ridiculously, extravagantly, sickeningly rich and famous selling my NaNovel. One can dream.
----------Unseen creatures feed off humans' emotional pollution. One girl can see the threat and must save mankind, without killing earth.
23,159 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 18 48
However I work full time, single, live on my own and I'm well and truely in the adult world. How many other 20 somethings out there are the same as me? Already on the career path to oblivion?
I appear to do most of my writing at work because the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of another computer again! And I nearly always get inspiration when I'm in the middle of something major at work...!
I'm 24, work full time in IT Data comms in Ireland. What about you?
----------
Yes, if you rub it on the back of a duck it goes quite fast...
Yeah 26 and I work full time as well. I love on my own, single also, and am independent. One day I want a house...
----------50,036 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 22 50
Working 40 hours a week at a high-stress, low-paying job, with really crazy hours. 5pm to 1am some days, 7pm to 3am others, and then the occasional 11am to 7pm...so squeezing writing in as any kind of routine is hard. But I'm trying like crazy!
----------50,086 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2009 - 23 03
I work full time in retail, at the same store as last year. I will tell you it is hard. Mainly because November is a hectic month to work in retail even without attempting to hammer out a couple thousand words a day.
There were days I wrote absolutely nothing. And then on days I was off I'd pull all nighters to catch up.
This year I wised up a bit though and requested both November 1st and November 30th off. I think it's going to do wonders to start on time and have a full day at the end in case I have to play catch up.
----------14,726 / 50,000
oct. 6, 2009 - 02 43
Does it count if I am working full-time now, having finished my first BA but have plans to go in for a Masters in a year or so?
Because that would be my current situation.
I'm doing a 'travel around Europe because I don't have anything tying me down!' exchange in the UK (omg I love it here), but in order to fund those travel-trips, I do have to work full-time. :) I'm in the marketing business as a reporting manager, so it's not actually so bad, but I totally know what you mean about writing at work. I know I shouldn't, but I do some of my finest material during my work hours - though I do get quite a lot done during weekends.