On Writing As Vocation: More Thoughts Sparked By Zadie Smith

On Sunday I quoted one of Zadie Smith’s 10 Rules On Writing from the 2010 The Guardian series:

“Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation.’ You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle.’ All that matters is what you leave on the page.”

I completely agree that in terms of writing, all that matters is what you leave on the page. And certainly there is no one writer’s lifestyle—the lifestyles will be as diverse as the writers themselves. I also agree that it does aspiri...