Career advice

Take a part time teaching job and write part time???

 

Sly dog, you... come and talk to me!

 

Hello, SleighBelle! I have been in hiding (not really, but it does feel like it!) for all sorts of reasons.

I can't sign into MSN as my Dad is currently "lending" my laptop, but am on Facebook!

 

Blah! - yes, I considered that! The problem is that P/T posts seem few and far between ... eek. And most go to Mums, and I am not a Mum!

 

Hi,

Just to give you some hope! My friend was a teacher for about 7 years but is now a full time writer. She was writing the whole time she was teaching and she agreed, it was really tough. She stuck with it though and now has a number of books published in the US, 2 trilogies published here and has just written a script for New Tricks along with a multitude of other things. So all in all, just to say, it is possible you just have to stick with it.

For myself, I've been teaching 7 years now and though I often think I'd like to do something else, I just don't know what else I'd do! Hope that might give you a bit of motivation - perseverance seems to be the key - something I sadly lack!

 

I definitley think look for part time work whether that's in teaching or out of it. Maybe sign on with a supply agency and possibly do tutoring tohelp you pay your bills?

Teaching is not a job you can do if your heart isn't in it I don't think - it will make you miserable. Follow your dream and as for what would having a year or longer ou tof education look like on your CV - well I would say cross that bridge when you come to it.

Good luck and let us know hat you do!

 

I wouldn't advise supply teaching if you want time to write. I've been supply teaching for two years and was planning to do some writing as an extra (having had stuff published before), but I find very little time. I signed up for one of those much-advertised 'be a writer' correspondence courses and it was a complete waste of money. Out of date learning booklets, over bureaucratic distance tutoring - it's a lot easier just to write stuff and send it direct to publishers to see if they bite. I've got notebooks full of ideas that I haven't followed up, and web-publishing projects in dire need of an update. One thing I might try with some of my older stuff is Kindle self-publishing via Amazon.

The main problem with supply is you can't predict or plan how many days you'll be working, and the day-to-day work is drying up due to the use of Cover Supervisors. You can't go into it with a plan to work only three days a week and write the rest of the time. The reality is you go for days/weeks on end with no work at all then you get offered a full-time maternity leave (if you're lucky) and you jump on it because the money's short. Then you're back working 5 days a week. There's no happy medium.

Sounds to me like you'd be best getting a part time job with predictable hours that doesn't involve bringing work home, then you can fit a writing routine in around it.

 

I doubt the OP will read this advice as she posted this four years ago. I would imagine she's sorted things one way or another in that time.

 

I must pay more attention to the thread's opening date

I must pay more attention to the thread's opening date

I must pay more attention to the thread's opening date

I must pay more attention to the thread's opening date

I must pay more attention to the thread's opening date

I must...