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"[Why not] make the elevator a moving improvisational performance space, turning your elevator ride together into more of a theater-of-the-absurd type of situation. It may go something like this: 'Man, have you ever installed a door on the ceiling? Whew, tough work.' 'No, I never have ... just cabinet doors in dirt.'"

That's Jeffrey Yamaguchi, editor of the action-packed blog 52 Projects, inventing a new art form in his anti-business handbook, Working For The Man.

Today, I caught myself having the same kind of meaningless elevator patter on my way to the dayjob. This weekend, I'm going back to the writing table, just like you. Yamaguchi has some good advice for all of us.

This week he's our special guest on my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
Your book has plenty of wacky advice for keeping sane in an office, but I know you must have had some real-life struggles while writing this book. How did you balance your 9 to 5 job with this project? Any serious advice for how writers can write on the side without letting their day-jobs interfere?

Jeffrey Yamaguchi:
I used my own advice, and also failed at using my own advice. It’s a battle, you know, to balance the day job with the writing efforts. Continue reading...

One of the keys is to do a good job on your day job work, and to not waste time feeling down or feeling sorry for yourself if you don’t like that day job. And in fact, working on your own stuff, whether on the clock or at night or first thing in the morning, whenever you do it, can really help push back any of those disgruntled, negative feelings you have about your job.

It is amazing how much mental space all those negative feelings can take up. You can literally spend all your time stewing in your own misery. I feel like an expert at that. I really have to work hard to not give in to those feelings. The advice for getting writing done is pretty simple, you’ve heard it all before, all the usual things – be disciplined, write every day, use your lunch hour, do some writing first thing in the AM, don’t spend too much time surfing the web, find ways to sneak in some writing while at the office,  things like that.
 
And I will say this, thinking of the day job versus getting your personal writing project done. All you have to think about is all the work-related things you get done at work, all those reports and emails and assignments or spreadsheets or whatever. You get that crap done. Some is mindless, some is agonizingly difficult, but you get it all done, and usually on time. Well, if you can do that crap, then you can certainly get your novel done, or your short story, or screenplay, whatever your personal writing project is. And what is more important? Some monthly report that no one reads or really even notices (other than the fact that you did or didn’t get it delivered on time), or your own personal writing project. The priority is obvious. The  long term plan for the writer is usually clear. It’s the discipline that can be elusive, and yes, the drag of the day job can really fuck with that effort to be disciplined. So you just have to do your best to stay positive and focused and get yourself in front of that keyboard to write, write, and write some more. The more you do that, the more disciplined you will be, and the more writing you will get done. Like I mentioned, I follow my own advice, and I fail at following my own advice.

It’s an ongoing struggle, and in terms of my own writing efforts, I just keep doing my best to keep punching the clock and not the walls in addition to punching those keys on the keyboard as often as I can.