Best Jobs for Writers (Get Inspired By 15 Famous Writers Stories)

Some of today’s best-selling authors got their start working jobs that are a far cry from being an author. The jobs, whether authors hated them or liked them, in turn, inspired them to write their best works.

Everyone has to start somewhere, right? Take a look at where these successful authors began.

Agatha Christie

Apothecaries’ assistant

It’s no coincidence that Agatha Christie knows so much about how to poison characters. At the beginning of WWI, Christie worked as a volunteer at a hospital tending to troops. Her experience landed her a paid position at an apothecary.

Christie’s first book may never have existed without her knowledge of pharmaceuticals. She has captured many readers with her murder mysteries which details of the effects of different poisons on the body.

Stephen King

Janitor

Carrie is one of the first of many novels by the king of horror himself, Stephen King. Before his success as an author, King worked as a high school janitor. King says that he got the idea for writing Carrie while working there.

Some of King’s great scenes are a result of mopping up lots of horrific messes in one of the scariest places in the world; the girls’ locker room.

Harper Lee

Airline ticket clerk

Harper Lee dropped out of law school at the University of Alabama to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. To keep herself afloat while writing various articles and short stories, she worked as a ticket clerk for Eastern Airlines and BOAC (now British Airways).

Lee’s experience working in an airplane helped shape up her writing career and she went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. In her book “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee wanted to know if you were an “aisle type” or a “window person.” It is the perfect book for when you’re stuck in the middle seat.

Charles Dickens

Factory worker

Charles Dickens’ very first job was at the age of 12, where he worked in a factory putting labels on tins of boot polish. He worked ten hours a day, making hardly any money, six shillings a week which is roughly around $25 today. Later, he became a freelance journalist and eventually one of the best authors of all time.

Charles Dickens developed a uniquely bleak point of view thanks to his early jobs at the shoe polish factory. Some of his classic works include “Hard Times” and “Oliver Twist” which drew inspiration from Dickens’ brutal working conditions during the industrial revolution in Britain.

Suzanne Collins

Wrote TV shows for kids

Author of The Hunger Games series, Suzanne Collins was first a writer on Nickelodeon’s Emmy-nominated Clarissa Explains it All. She also worked on other shows like Clifford’s Puppy Days, Generation O!, and Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!. In her time writing for these shows, she met children’s author James Proimos, who convinced her to write a children’s book.

Nicholas Sparks

Dental products salesman

Romance author of the widely successful story The Notebook once sold dental products over the phone while he waited patiently for his work to be accepted. He also worked as a waiter, real estate appraisal, and even attempted to start his own manufacturing business. A literary agent soon discovered Sparks and not long after did he become a New York Times best-seller.

Shortly after a literary agent discovered his book in a slush pile, Nicholas Sparks went from selling dental products over the phone to becoming a New York Times bestselling author.

Diana Gabaldon

University Professor

Diana Gabaldon started her career as a writer while working at Arizona State University teaching environmental sciences. Gabaldon taught for 12 years before becoming a full-time author, eventually publishing the popular historical romance series, Outlander. Thanks to her experience as a research scientist, Gabaldon has become a renowned science fiction writer.

William Faulkner

Postmaster

William Faulkner briefly worked as a postmaster at the University of Mississippi. From all accounts, Faulkner wasn’t a model employee. Sources say he would lose mail (sometimes throw it away), ignored customers, played cards and wrote while working. It took a while before Faulkner’s novels about the American South became recognized as special.

His infamous letter of resignation is a written work you have to read. He wrote; “I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp.”

Jack Kerouac

Cotton picker

Jack Kerouac worked a long list of odd jobs, which is fitting for someone at the forefront of the beat movement. His resume included various periods of work as a cotton picker, dishwasher, construction worker, fire lookout, deckhand, gas station attendant, railroad brakeman, and night guard.

Kerouac got inspiration from some of these odd jobs. For example, his experience as a night guard inspired “On The Road” and fire lookout “Desolation Angels.”

J.K. Rowling

English as a foreign language teacher

Before the success of the young adult series Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling taught English as a foreign language in Portugal. Rowling quit teaching and returned to the UK where she fully committed herself to working on The Sorcerer’s Stone. She started writing the book during her teaching days in Portugal.

John Green

Chaplain

The inspiration for The Fault in Our Stars came to John Green while he worked as a chaplain at a Children’s hospital. The book contains stories of the people he met while studying to become a minister.

Green never did end up becoming a full-time clergyman. He is an author of six books.

Douglas Adams

Bodyguard

Before the infamous The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy hit bookshelves, Douglas Adams was a bodyguard for a wealthy Arabian family. During this time he gained ample knowledge which served as the source material for the book.

Though he discontinued as a bodyguard, the job was able to prepare him to become a critically acclaimed writer. He even started a radio series based on his time as a bodyguard and the book.

Robert Frost

Teacher

American poet Robert Frost left Dartmouth College after two months and returned to his hometown. While writing poetry, his experience and interactions while teaching helped in shaping his work. Thus, it became easier to sell his first poem in 1894.

Jack London

California Fish Patrol

Jack London, just before the publication of his first publication, worked with the California Fish Patrol in his teenage years. His time sailing provided insight into life on the sea which then influenced his work “Typhoon off the Coast of Japan”. 

Vladmir Nabokov

Curator

Vladmir Nabokov worked as a curator of the butterfly collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology and this influenced his writings. Despite previously published books in Europe, when he came to the United States, his time at the museum gave him insight to write about butterflies and moths.

Eventually, Vladmir was able to develop the theory of butterfly evolution that has now been proven using DNA analysis.

A lot of best-selling authors means a lot of books to pick up at the library! You’ll be able to read more of them when you learn to increase the rate at which you read. Our speed reading courses will teach you techniques to improve your reading speed even further. Click to learn more.