Nick Barton
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The Working Man

1/4/2014

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I have a new job, (shocking, I know) and now most of my weeks are consumed by working at a chocolate shop and not at home writing. Sure, writers put off their writing, including this one, but, when one is working instead of writing, one tends to miss it.

I reckon a lot of writers out there also have a job unconnected to their writing. We've got to find some way to pay for our internet! Some of us have full-time jobs so even less writing is achieved and they may well be too knackered at the end of the day to sit down and pump out a grand of words. Sure, I work about 4-6 hours a day, but even I feel the burn afterwards. I tend to stand around a lot and haul boxes up and down stairs so at the end of the day, I'll relax with my internet, play some tunes and watch YouTube videos or play Skyrim. Sometimes I will write though. I'm not what you would call 'fit' at all. I like sitting down.

Anyway, I am a person who works by routine. During my unemployed days (ahem, years) I would get up as early as I could manage (9am, now sometimes earlier) and mess around online then get down to it. Then in the afternoons I'd continue writing. Things have changed. I don't write in the mornings of working days, but I will try to after work. But, like I said, sometimes I just want to slay dragons in Skyrim instead of write my own dragon-slaying tales. Mind you, writing after work has helped drain away the annoyance of customer ignorance and it lets the anxiety of working the next day out onto the page. I'm getting better at work though now that I'm settling in, but still.

I know my hours are nothing compared to some, but statistics mean nothing. I know what I can achieve and what I can't. I'll decide what I want to do on my time off for myself and for nobody else. Time off has become precious and sometimes I feel guilty when I'm doing something else that isn't writing. I'm half-expecting a guardsman in one of the many quiet hamlets of Skyrim to approach me and say, 'Why are you here in Markarth? You should be at home writing your next tome.' Then, there'd be three speech options below that to choose from:
  1. You're right, I'll go home at once.
  2. 'I will. As soon as I've seen the blacksmith about dragon-plated armour, I'll go home.
  3. Either drag me home, or go away.

It wouldn't be the last option, I like to think I'm a kind adventurer in Skyrim AND in real life. God, I'm such a nerd.

So, yeah. I'm now working, but even that will be short-lived because the store is closing at the end of April. Still, it pays, it's quite satisfying and it's manageable once you get to grips with the tricky till stuff. I feel anxious before work and when it's busy (especially on a Saturday), but I'll get through it.

All the best.

Songs of the Week:
  1. 'Dreams' by Roald Velden
  2. 'Blackwater Park' by Opeth
  3. 'Nostalgia' by Fracture Design
  4. 'Smile Like You Mean It' by The Killers
  5. 'When You Were Young' by The Killers
  6. 'All These Things That I've Done' by The Killlers
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