Mental drain on creativity
My evil alter-ego is upbeat about his grocery-store job. That's right: he's giddy with glee about being a supermarket clerk. Okay, I'm exaggerating (at least I hope I am), but he is optimistic. Why? Because having those kinds of jobs are great for being a writer. No, not in the sense you get great stories from people in supermarkets or you can always hide out in the ice-cream locker with your notepad, but the job in itself is mentally easy.

Through a short series of actual 9-to-5 desk jobs, Jaquandor has discovered (shit, I could have told him this 8 years ago) two things that greatly inhibit writing output. The first is that sitting in front of a computer all day isn't a great motivator for a writer. Probably because the last thing one wants to do when you get home is sit (again) in front of the computer. Although not as comically fine as the gynecologist from "Friends" who knows the last thing he wants to see at the end of the day is another vagina, it's analogically appropriate.

The second is having a job in which you expel a great amount of mental energy. First of all, when you are concentrating you can't daydream, and therefore you can't think about your characters, plot, etc. Also, by the time you get home after a long (or even regular) day of work, you are just tired of thinking, and vegging out in front of the TV sounds amazingly satisfying. Even watching a movie feels like too much effort -- who can concentrate for 2 hours? Usually on Mondays or Tuesdays I get sucked into TNT's dark web of Law & Order. And no writing gets done.

This is all because I have a job that requires me to be at a computer most of the time and requires me to think quite a lot. Frankly, I find the experience rewarding and the day flies by, but I haven't written very much over the past year and it's because I have a job which likely falls into the 95 top percentile of occupations that aren't good for writers.

But that's no excuse. I've nearly completed a new color sketch for my wall, and I've made some good advances with 'the book'. It's just harder now (I can't imagine how much harder it would be with a wife and kid, but who even has time for that?), but not even attempting anything feels like a waste, and I ain't finished yet.