One Year Sabbatical
Last year, I got laid off. For almost the past year, I got a huge taste of what it’d be like to be a full time writer.
Surprisingly, it was oddly boring. When you don’t spend 9-10 hours of your day getting ready for work, commuting for work, and actually working, you’ll have a lot more time in the day. But no one ever spends 8 hours a day writing, responding to emails, editing, jotting down ideas, reading, and so on. I would say a good day would be no more than 4-5 hours a day max.
Yet as boring as it was, it was a great experience.
There was a lot of time to kill, and I couldn’t go hang out with my friends because they were at work. I’m not a teenager anymore so playing a video game for more than two hours is hard.
To get out of the house, I started to take daily walks and go hiking, both to get some exercise and think about my story and other ideas. Those were the highlights of my day and I loved them. I got a lot of thinking done and I believe it helped my writing. While What Once Was One was being edited, I also worked on a couple of short stories. Hopefully, one will be released soon. I got into my new hobby, board gaming, and went to the local store and to Meetup.com to play with people. I traveled more and visited family and also went to Vegas, baby!
I felt like I lived a more fulfilling, more peaceful, more relaxed life in my year off. But it wasn’t all good.
As my savings dwindled, I felt the noose around my neck tighten. I also had to pay for the last bit of editing to get done, and wondered whether to do any advertising. There were times when I wondered if writing was worth it. I knew I had enough money to release What Once Was One, but would anyone care? Would the sequel make a big enough splash since I couldn’t afford any advertising dollars? Would I have to move home if I couldn’t find a job soon enough? And through all that, a small part of me hoped that I would be a bestselling author when it dropped.
For all the ups and downs, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. It was a great experience and a taste of what one day I hope to achieve. Of course, I also envision it without the help of unemployment and with me living in my dream home. Will I ever reach that point? I don’t know. But I do feel that with each word typed, every book sold, and every interview done, that I’m one step closer to it.
Marc Johnson
