McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Don't Write Your Book On Company Time

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Yeratel:
There's a blurb in the news about a woman who got fired for working on her novel at work, on the company PC, while she was on the clock: http://www.kcci.com/news/14918070/detail.html  Since she was fired "for cause", she was denied unemployment benefits, too. A lesson for all you aspiring novelists with day jobs - until your blockbuster gets published and the royalty checks exceed your advance, keep your masterpiece away from the company PC, and do your writing at home nights and weekends.

3by2:
if she was a programmer working on her own thing on company pc, the program itself would have been deemed to be the property of the company.  not sure if that would translate to a case like this one, but basically keep things that you don't want to lose OFF the company property. 

even aside from getting caught working on her own stuff, had she been released for any reason whatsoever she may not be given opportunity to retrieve her work from the pc.  if she didn't have a backup online or on her own machine she'd be SOL.

meg_evonne:
I'm an insurance agent and could never write at work---too many distractions.  I do understand that Tom Clancy is an insurance agent and wrote all his novels at work.  I'm willing to bet he owned a huge agency and hired all his staff to handle day to day activities.  Don't see how he could have done it other wise!

Murphy's Stunt Double:
Yeah - Tom Clancy doesn't strike me as the "clerk answering phones" type.

I'll bet he has (d) staff.

Yeratel:
As I recall, before he got published, Steven King started out writing while he was working as a night watchman. He was lucky not to have anyone looking over his shoulder wondering what he was doing scribbling in a notebook all night.

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