What Do You Trade In?

I work in finance. We have a saying when it comes to the stock market; no risk equals no return. I thought about this as we headed off to the casino this weekend. I'm not a big gambler when it comes to cash in hand, at least not at the Blackjack or Poker tables. For some reason, taking risks with my retirement investments is a different story. I figure I'm fairly young now so I can afford to be riskier with my investments.

Either way, it got me thinking about writing and how I am pretty conservative in my risks with writing. I've been determined to write more this year, and so far, I have. But I've also aimed to make writing more of a priority and while the desire is there, I still don't carve out enough time in my busy life. I work another job during the day; I am good at it and it pays the bills. But it is not my passion and if I could instantly receive a check as a writer of novels, I would do that in a heartbeat. Alas, a familiar predicament?

The truth is I will not leave my day job to spend time trying to make it as a writer because I can't afford to "risk" not being able to pay my bills. In some ways, I could say this means I don't have enough faith in my abilities to get the job done. Then again, writing is like nothing else I've ever done. In my day job, I got paid to go through training and learn how to do my job. No one pays a writer to learn the craft, which is what make those who are willing to do so, exceptional. You have to truly love what you are doing.

In my opinion, there is no right or wrong way to reach your goal as long as you have a plan and you stick to it. Some make it "happen" in a matter months while others take years. If I were looking at a graph of my writing career, I personally want a long term sustained output. It should start small and the curve up as I go along. Sure there will be ups and downs but I hope to be consistent enough that its overall output is climbing up.  What does your graph look like (or what do you want your career to be like)? Are you trading in things each day to write and if so, could you afford to be a bit "riskier"? The reward may be worth it.

Filed under: Toni Kelly, Writer's Life, Writing Topics