T.J. Klune's path to full-time writing ran through ten years at Geico and one comment from a visiting executive that he couldn't shake, not through an MFA program or a bidding war for a debut manuscript.
Ten Years at Geico
Klune started at Geico as a claims adjuster in 2006, while writing and publishing fiction on the side. His first novel, Bear, Otter, and the Kid, a contemporary drama about a found queer family, came out through an independent publisher in 2011 and sold well enough to convince him the writing might eventually become the main career rather than the side one.
The Compliment That Changed Everything
It took a small, strange moment to force the actual decision. A senior executive toured his Virginia office and, after reviewing his claims performance, told him he was very good at insurance. Klune has described that as the worst thing he'd ever heard, precisely because it was true and precisely because it wasn't what he wanted to be good at. The cushion was already in place by then, close to a year of salary set aside. The compliment simply made the decision impossible to keep putting off.
That decade of overlap, writing fiction on the side of a full-time corporate job, shapes how Klune talks about his craft now. Evenings and weekends spent building a second career inside the margins of the first one turned out to be real preparation, not just a delay before the real thing started. For the fuller picture of the routine that came after, see the full T.J. Klune writing routine.
What You Can Steal
- Save your runway before you jump. Klune banked close to a year's salary before quitting, turning a leap into a calculated decision.
- Build the second career inside the first one. His debut novel came out five years before he left his day job.
- Let a clarifying moment do its work. Sometimes the push to change course comes from an offhand comment, not a grand plan.