When Writing Becomes Your Job, Does the Fun Go Away?

Over on my Threads account, I asked an open-ended question to authors that “made it big enough” to quit their day jobs and write full-time.

I’d been having that once writing became a source of income instead of a hobby, it might change my relationship to it. Writing full-time feels like the best possible version of my life, but I also know that when money comes into play with anything? Things can get complicated. Heavier. Harder. Less enjoyable.

I appreciate the responses I got. No one answered the question exactly the same way, but there were some themes that stood out.

One of the first responses I got hit me immediately. The author, a romance writer, described that she felt writing was her escape from “authoring”. To her, she bucketed the two things totally separately.

Here’s her response:

I consider author to be my job title, and it very much feels like a job most days… But my love for writing itself never goes away.

That distinction showed up again and again.

The emails, edits, launches, admin, ads, social media, growth strategies, bookkeeping, promotion all means that there’s more to do as an author than when you were just an undiscovered writer.

It was encouraging to see though that most writers said: Writing was still fun and still their dream job. But they’ve never worked harder in their lives.

This sentiment about “working harder than ever” (for some) was driven by the fact people love the job and (for others) driven by the fact the stakes feel so high.

Another author (a popular romantasy and romance writer) said:

This is my business, and I make sure I treat it as one. And I’m always in the growth mindset.

While writing itself still felt like many a creative, fulfilling, fun process, there were a lot of external elements to that core act that muddied the waters. But for many, it seemed the pros of writing as a job actually outweighed the increased workload.

Despite all of these considerations around business vs art, there was one response that made me so excited.

She said:

The difference is that now the rest of my life is more fun because I don’t feel the constant pressure to use every second of free time for writing. When I was working full-time plus authoring, I wasn’t sleeping enough, had no time for self-care, and felt like I was always dropping in the ball in at least one area of my life.

Several other authors hopped into the comments to affirm that this was also their experience. While I do think the conversation around admin, business, and marketing considerations are really important still, this particular thought was so encouraging.

Because it’s how I feel right now.

As a mom of a toddler, working full-time, trying to balance friends and family, and also trying to fit in prioritization of just “me” things like “mental health”… my writing time is sometimes crammed into the 10-minute, in-between moments I have in the day. The pee breaks, lunches, nap times, post-bed time “in-betweens”.

But from these author’s experiences… Writing full-time didn’t eliminate the pressure, true. But it did improve their overall balance in life.

They were able to fully be present with themselves, their friends, and family. By using working hours for writing, there wasn’t anymore pressure to do it in all of the “in betweens”. The in-between moments could actually be time to just breathe and be present.

With that pressure relocation, though, it’s still important to mention that burnout still can loom. Just because you’re living out your dream career, doesn’t mean healthy boundaries still aren’t necessary.

Creating systems to turn off your “work brain” which is now your “author brain” was still necessary. Our first author described her method for adjusting her schedule to make it more manageable:

I changed the time of day that I write and I think it’s helped a lot. I try to have an “eat the frog” mentality and do the hardest tasks at the start of the day, then in the evening I make myself a coffee and light a candle and writing feels like a reward. I used to write first to “get it over with” and it took some of the joy away.

Even if you’re living the dream and doing what you’ve always wanted, you still have to take care of yourself. You still have to create boundaries to keep the magic alive.

But even when the author days feel hard, many stated they would take it over their old day job. One author said:

“The worst day as a writer is still orders of magnitude better than the best day at my last corporate job.”

And that sounds… pretty dang awesome to me.