Do you have a day job that doesn’t involve your creative writing? Yes? Me too. I’m a teacher, and I have found that most writers (except the most successful) have day jobs. There are the teachers like me who write in limited free time, agents and book reviewers who make their living as close as possible to the publishing world, and those in random professions who use writing as their creative outlet. Many of us are hoping to get published.
Now here’s the rub: Do you consider your writing to be another job?
A person who has supported me told me today that writing was a hobby, and I shouldn’t spend so much time on it. Apparently, it is only a job if it makes you money. And if it is for fun, it can’t be work.
So this got me thinking (and furious), what constitutes a job? Here is the definition (noun): A paid position of regular employment, or, a task or piece of work, especially one that is paid.
I love writing, and I also love teaching. Teaching pays me a salary after 6 years of college, 2 degrees, a credential, and years of hard work climbing ladders to get to the awesome job I have today. Writing fulfills my creative outlet, for the first time in 10 years. If I love my job, it is philosophically not work. But would you tell an artist that they’re art is a hobby if their goal is to sell it? That would be insulting.
What about you, is writing just for fun? A job?
R.A. Frick 
Writing is a labor of blood, sweat, tears, and love. It is the pouring of your soul into creating a new world you want to share with the world. If I wrote because it was my job, I think I would write crap. Though I’m not going to lie, it would be nice to get published some day and get a little something for all the late night (and early morning) hours, writing and rewriting, and constant thinking that goes into creating a novel. Non-writers just don’t understand:P
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Oh, what a great question! I started to write a response but it was beginning to turn into a full-length blog post. So, I think I’ll write one in response to this awesome question!
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Thoughts to consider, but not too much. Chase your passion! Who knows what the furture holds and where those paychecks will be coming from. Keep writing!
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For myself, writing is a creative outlet but lately I have been morphing it into a required job. I am so determined on finishing my novel yet I haven’t been motivated enough or had enough time to sit down and work on it. My frustration has been building and I think it is because I have turned the thing that I do for “fun” into a job and now nothing is getting done.
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For me, writing IS my main job. But even the ability to tell people “I’m a writer” when they ask what my profession is doesn’t mean I take my own personal writing seriously. Even as a writer–or maybe especially as a writer–it’s truly difficult to justify working on your own projects, the ones that don’t and might not ever bring in money. But If YOU don’t take yourself seriously, if you don’t consider your writing a valuable, productive activity, if you cast it off as a frivolous past-time, why would the rest of the world care about your work? You have to treat your creative writing not just as a job, but as a profession and a lifestyle. You don’t write, you ARE a writer. Telling people “I’m a writer” is a crucial step to actually becoming one.
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