I Applied the 10% Rule to My Writing, And Some Weird Doors Opened Up

3 creative side-gigs for you to try too

I’ve been a working writer for over 12 years and the 70/20/10 rule is one I’ve always applied to my time. The 10 part is the most fun.

Here’s how it works — I spend the majority of my writing time on work that pays, around 20% on testing out and finding new income streams, and 10% of my writing time on unpaid creative work. This past year, the 10% opened some fascinating doors I wasn’t ever expecting to enter!

This is how it went:

• I wrote a song with my husband and it ended up on four different radio stations.
• I entered a poetry contest and enjoyed it.
• For 42 weeks I invested two-three hours learning new Creative Nonfiction genres. People ended up paying me to teach them too.
• I wrote a lyric essay (not the same as music lyrics) for a contest. I was placed 3rd and won some nice prizes including cash!
• I wrote two scripts. A director liked them and asked if they can produce them in my local town.

Creative writing improves your nonfiction writing. It stretches, challenges, and stimulates you creatively and — you never know — could open up a weird door or maybe another income stream in the future.

If you want to improve your writing, I have a challenge for you. Spend 10% of your writing time on creative writing that isn’t related to your main nonfiction work. Write without any expectations of pay or an audience. Write because it’s fun and you’ll learn something.

Here are 3 to try:

#1. Serialized Fiction

Serialized fiction is increasing in popularity again. People want short reads and there are sites to help you share your work if you decide you want an audience. Radish Fiction is one of these — with the potential to earn money. Wattpad is another.

Writing fiction is refreshing for nonfiction writers. You can get lost in your characters and in the worlds you build. There’s a lot of freedom in it.

It also helps develop your story telling skills: an essential skill in nonfiction too!

#2. Plays and screenwriting

When you’re writing scripts, you stretch your dialogue and character skills. You learn about controlling the audience and tension building. Scripts can be based on truth or completely made up.

It could be a story from your life told in monologue; a one person show, or a multi-cast television series pilot. You could take a famous story and retell it in a modern context.

There’s so much flexibility and no boring exposition to write. Just action and dialogue.

Watch “Solos” on Amazon Prime to see wonderful examples of well-paced monologues.

#3. Lyrics

If you like poetry, the sound of words, and creative word play, lyrics are especially fun. Lyric writing makes you focus intensely on the “word level” of your writing. It makes you ask questions like:

• How do these words fit together rhythmically.
• How do they sound out loud.
• What impression does that sound give?
• How can I tell this story or emotion in as few words as possible.
• What are the most powerful words to use here?

As writers of longer works, we often ignore the word level and focus on the ideas. Lyric writing takes us back to basics: vocabulary, word arrangement, pace, and the effect of individual sounds.

Here’s my experience and tips for writing lyrics if you want to give it a go.

Get experimental with your 10%. Test those strange looking doors. Give them a good push and see which ones open. You never know what you’ll find on the other side.

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