Writing in a novel in work - yay or nay?

CeceOR

'Writng a novel in work - yay or nay?' 

Hi all-

Just curious about this because I think loads of people might be doing it. I’m an aspiring writer but I’m struggling to find the time for it as I work full time in a business role.

I work in financial services and there was a girl in my last job who worked at reception was constantly closing down a Word document whenever anyone approached her - I realised that she was writing a novel during her ‘’dead time’’, when work was slow.

It struck me as genius - why hadn’t I thought of it? But the nature of her job gives her free time and allows her to work alone and unsupervised, so obviously it wouldn’t work for any other job - or so I thought.

I’m in a new firm and there is a girl there who has a creative writing master's. She is writing a novel during her working day - not her dead time.  I know this because we had a chat about her degree, something I was considering doing part-time. 

She gets all of her work done but the thought of it sends chills down my spine - this is a serious firm and her manager has eyes like a hawk - nothing gets past her.

I’m just curious to get people's opinions on this - is this common? Is this something that people who are determined to become writers do? A risk they are willing to take? 

Could she potentially get into a ton on s**t or end up fired if someone else noticed?

Thanks

Del.Monte

Obviously she could get into trouble as she's not doing her job. Anyway, on a personal basis I have to be 'in the zone' to write anything and even then I'm struggling and I can't imagine producing anything worthwhile while nominally doing a 9-5 job.

km85264

It very much depends on your job and your ability to carve out time in it while still getting your job done. Many years ago, I started taking my palm pilot (yes, that long ago) into a little two person meeting room at lunch time. The palm pilot had no internet and no games worth speaking of so it was pure concentration. I'd get maybe 20-30 minutes done and, while I wasn't the best mindset for writing, it did put through a certain regular workload which was handy in getting a novel draft spun out.
Nowadays I mostly work from home so "getting away with it" wouldn't be an issue, but I find that work completely occupies my mind 9-5 so it's only when I log out and relax for an hour that I can get the right mindset to write.

SEANoftheDEAD

All depends on the job... Somedays yes, somedays no.
I tend to use Google Drive/Docs for drafting. I would have this open in work all day and during quiet spells I'd go in and work on ideas etc.
If I start on something that needs a bit of focus, I tend to go into the toilet and continue it on the phone.

At night after the wife and kid are sleeping, I'll get on the computer and transfer the text to my word processor and clean it all up and continue writing.

Even if I can't write anything, I like to re-read what I've done so far as it keeps me in touch with the story.

I'm not sure if this how it should be done, but it works for me and I enjoy myself doing it which is the most important thing.