From the Factory to the Novel: What Writers Did Before Their Literary Careers
What authors did 'before' writing, and how that experience made its way into their texts.
Many well-known writers' professional experience took shape outside literature — in factories, the insurance system, science labs, and the service industry. That earlier work shaped the plots and structure of their texts.
On writers' pre-literary careers — in this DeTalks article.
Stephen King — Teacher, Janitor, and Laundry Worker
Before achieving worldwide fame as the 'King of Horror,' Stephen King took a path few would expect from a future bestselling author. In the fall of 1971, King began his career as an English teacher at Hampden Academy in Maine. For Stephen, teaching language and literature wasn't easy, since it demanded a lot of energy and attention, but it also provided his first steady income.
King also worked at an industrial laundry, doing physical labor tied to maintaining equipment and sorting linens. Before teaching, the writer also took side jobs as a janitor and doorman at a school.
Agatha Christie — Nurse and Pharmacist
During World War I, Agatha worked as a volunteer nurse at a military hospital, examining wounded soldiers. Hospital work demanded stamina and constant contact with death, which later shaped the themes of her books.
Christie later began working in the hospital's dispensary. The future writer mastered the basics of pharmacology and studied the properties of various chemicals and poisons in detail. Christie put that knowledge to use in her novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, where poisoning becomes a key plot device.
Franz Kafka — Insurance Clerk, Civil Servant
Before entering literary history as one of modernism's key authors, Franz Kafka held a stable but exhausting job at a government office. Starting in 1908, Kafka worked at the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute of the Kingdom of Bohemia, handling administrative and analytical work. Despite his literary attempts, his job at the institute remained his main source of income.
Franz filed reports on workplace injuries, checked companies' compliance with safety regulations, and drafted official findings. His workday often ran late into the evening, so he could only write at night. This daily experience with formalized procedures found its way into the novels The Trial and The Castle.
Jack London — Factory Worker and Sailor
Even as a teenager, Jack London faced grueling physical labor — at age 14, he worked at Hickmott's Cannery, with shifts as long as eighteen hours.
London later served as a sailor on industrial ships and also worked as a seasonal laborer. Constant physical strain and brutal conditions became part of his daily reality. Jack drew on that earlier experience in The Call of the Wild and The Sea-Wolf, where the protagonists struggle constantly to survive.
Haruki Murakami — Jazz Bar Owner
Before starting his literary career, Murakami and his wife, in 1974, opened the jazz bar Peter Cat in Tokyo. The couple took on the day-to-day work of running the place and often stayed until late at night. Haruki worked as bartender and manager, handling the music, guests, and finances.
Max Kidruk — Engineer-Mathematician, Programmer
Max Kidruk earned an engineering-mathematics degree (in Heat Power Engineering) from the Rivne State University of Water Management. After university, Max worked as a programmer and took part in research projects in applied mathematics.
In his professional work, Kidruk focused on mathematical modeling and data analysis. That background shows in the cause-and-effect plotting and scientific detail found in his books Bot, Don't Look Back and Stay Silent, and Where There Is No God.
Erich Maria Remarque — Teacher, Reporter
Erich Maria Remarque's interest in literature took shape in childhood, in a family that read a lot. At the same time, the future writer also pursued music and drawing and considered art a possible career. But his father pushed for a more practical path — Remarque earned a teaching degree, though he didn't stay a teacher for long, changing jobs repeatedly amid the economic instability of postwar Germany.
After serving in World War I and a long period of treatment, Remarque wrote advertising copy and worked with newspapers as a sports reporter. At the same time, his first literary attempts appeared, though they found little success for a long while. That changed after the publication of his novel All Quiet on the Western Front, which brought the writer international recognition and financial independence.