Recently a friend in Milwaukee told me that he busts his hump at the office Monday through Thursday so that on Friday he has lots of spare time to work on his novel; if he plays his cards right he hits his work quota Friday morning and then has until quitting time to write. He delays his reporting so that
his bosses don’t know he’s stealing Fridays from the company.
(Yes, bosses! He answers to two people. Yuck. Office Space, anyone?)
Well, this piqued my interest. Here at WriteByNight we’ve recorded videos on finding time to write, and even created a Time Management Questionnaire designed to help you target available writing time. Get up extra early before work, we say. Write on your
lunch break. After work, write for an hour before turning on the TV!
But in none of these have we suggested writing on the clock. Not because we’re against the idea—in fact, we love it. We
double-extra love it. It just never occurred to me to touch on it; perhaps because writing at work is something I’ve never done.
Stealing company time is a treasured tradition. But stealing company time to write? I want to
know more about the people who do it. So I’m handing it over to you, for a blog series we’re calling “Writers at Work at Work.”
