The year after I graduated college I had a job in a library. When people underlined passages in the library books, or made notes in the margins, the books were sent to me. I erased the lines and the notes. Yes, that was my job.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I was a writer for hire. I wrote to pay the bills.
I went to work in an office and learned, among other lessons, to do things I did not care for, and to do them well. Before I left this office, two of my books had already been published.
I treat my writing like a day job, like my main job, even if for many years I was doing other jobs to pay the bills. I worked as a copy editor. I was a medical guinea pig. I was an eBay power seller of ladies' handbags. I was an assistant to a bookie at the horse races. I bartended. I did anything I could to make ends meet.
I don't work in a straight line. I don't write with an outline. I write where I can see things happen, and then things get glued together.
I worked also, doing things such as our paper route and, later on, waitressing.
I was always a writer, by which I mean I was always scribbling away, doing something with pen and paper.
I always have Moleskine notebooks on my desk. I am a big journaler. Every day I write down where I went, who I spoke to and what it was all about. Richard Branson told me to do that.
In addition to being a writer, I'm a librarian - professionally trained and everything.
I did a lot of my writing as though I was an academic, doing some piece of research as perfectly as possible.
I held a variety of jobs - most notably ten years working in universities - and kept on writing.