Writing as a Hobby
DISCLAIMER: This was written before the COVID-19 pandemic. Stay safe everyone!
I love to write. I’m always going to love to write. When I was younger, I pictured myself living in a cabin where I could do nothing but support myself by writing. I’m sure that’s a dream a lot of writers have. Over time, that dream has changed. For a lot of other writers, it hasn’t. They always picture themselves making a living off writing. Most writers never will. And when I realized that, and all the other things going on in my life, combined with my life shifting, I learned that writing, for me, will be a hobby.
I listen to a ton of podcasts, I’ve read countless articles over the years, watch YouTube videos, and even talk to other writers. But the one thing I’ve noticed is no one talks about writing as a hobby. They always talk about how they can write and make a living off of it. I get it. I used to think and feel that way. I mean, who wouldn’t want to do what they love for a living? But I’ve also seen the reverse of it. The thing that no one talks about.
Doing something creative is hard. It’s not physically hard, of course, but it does wear you down mentally. And those years will add up for you a lot sooner than you think. Mental health is finally becoming acceptable and even talked about in society now. While I don’t completely understand it and come from a different era, I’ve seen what it can do to you in the creative side.
Twitch, YouTube, and podcasting is something that people do and love…at first. It’s also something they get completely burned out on because they have to entertain people. They make their millions at first, but then within a couple of years they get burned out. Some can even die from it (https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/27/18759603/desmond-etika-amofah-death-youtube-creator-mental-health) On a smaller personal scale, I’ve known people who’ve worked in the gaming industry. They used to love gaming, but once they worked in it, they stopped gaming for fun. But as soon as they worked in a different industry, they loved it again. I feel like that could be me if I tried to write fiction full time.
Like I said before, I love writing. And I’m always going to write. But I don’t ever want to treat writing as if it was a chore. I don’t ever want to get bored of it. I don’t ever want it to feel like work. While I love writing, it is honestly boring. It’s not exciting at all, and it doesn’t change. It’s great how you’re only bound by your imagination, which is limitless, but the actual work involves your butt in chair in front of a computer. The only thing that varies is the research but everything else is the same.
Marc Johnson
