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Raemon comments on Optimal Employment Open Thread - Less Wrong
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Alexandra Erin solved this probably by writing serial webfiction in her spare time, building an audience, until her regular income from it was sufficient that she could quit her day job. Her primary storyline is still updated and available for free, supported by advertisements and donations. She's recently begun experimenting with additional e-books for sale.
Her definition of "sufficient" is probably different than yours (I think it was something like $1000/month). If you're raising a family you probably won't be able to quit your day job anytime soon, but you can work on projects that that at least get some supplemental income while you're honing your craft. Bearing in mind that serial webfiction has a different form to it than a novel does and you'd need to plan accordingly.
A few other people have done the same thing but with webcomics. However, most webcomics never become popular enough to earn any reasonable kind of income.
She actually originally describe her website as "like a webcomic! Without pictures!"
I think webcomics and webfiction alike are going to come down to the quality, and uniqueness. Most webcomics don't make much money but most webcomics are also crap and/or identical to a hundred other webcomics. I read a sizeable number of webcomics but almost every one of them is a unique genre.
In any case, the main point is that if you've already decided you'd like to hone a craft, serial webcontent provides a way to do so that will get you feedback and provide you with some level of compensation for your work, even if it's not enough to live on by itself.
I plan to get published and quit when royalties are enough. But that wasn't my question. I want to know what to do for the day job.