As I consider retiring from my Tech career early and trying to make a go of writing professionally, I thought this holiday break (two full weeks plus an additional day) might be a good time to try an experiment: spend the typical working days of those weeks in a manner consistent with my new career ambition. This means spending at least 6 hours each day focused on creative writing work. I set up a writing schedule and planned to stick to it and see how much I could get done. I even set up a macOS/iOS Focus mode for my writing and employed using a Pomodoro Technique timer to help out (Be Focused Pro).

Schedule:
7:30 AM: Write for 1 hour
8:30 AM: Shower, dress, eat breakfast
9:30 AM: Write for 3 hours
12:30 PM: Lunch and Reading/Facebook
1:30 PM: Write for 2 hours

The results? Well, I didn’t write on every day I planned to, I did take a few days off. I was being kind to myself since it can be difficult to make such an intense transition. Also, I did not keep to my schedule as much as I hoped. Often the 3 hour block and the 2 hour block were swapped. I also re-learned that word count is not a particularly useful metric to determine daily success since a good chunk of the time was spent brainstorming and planning. I did discover than when my hyper-focus kicks in, I can produce 6000 words in one day. Overall, I do feel I was generally successful in my attempt. I think were I to make the jump, I could be serious about it. And honestly, it felt good, a feeling I haven’t had in my tech career in a long while.

Numbers:

  • 8 solid writing days out of 11
  • Around 12,000 words typed in first drafts of two short stories
  • Around 10,000 words typed on detailed character backstories on a murder mystery novel
  • Around 1,000 words typed brainstorming a M/M Space Opera novel
  • Around 10 pages of a 8″ by 6″ writing journal hand-written doing brainstorming and idea germination (I’m not sure what that amounts to in words)
  • Averaging 2875 typed words typed per day (and an unknown number of hand-written words)

What will I do with this information? I’m not sure yet. We are still in discussion with financial advisors about whether it makes financial sense to even consider retiring early. Our planning assumes no income from my writing (if I did sell anything, that would be a nice bit of extra income). But given how good it felt, how happy it made me, and how my stress levels dropped quite a lot, I have to pay attention to it and give it serious consideration.

I’ve had a dream of being a professional genre writter since before High School, at least 40 years ago. But I was raised with the strong belief, probably mistaken, that it was more important to be financially self-sufficient than to follow my dreams. However, if we can be financially secure while I’m exploring a new writing career? Is there a reason not to?