Having a job where you’re paid to write sounds great when you have certain goals aimed at scribbling. However, I’ve heard from friends and other bloggers that those writing and creative jobs make it harder to write when you’re not working, keeping you from focusing on what you’re passionate about. I used to think “nah, just laziness. I could do it.” Curse my ignorance, they were right. When you’ve been sitting for eight hours, five days a week either writing or collecting material to use for writing, the last thing you want to do when you get home is write more.

Working in the daycare last summer and the summer before, I still wasn’t consistent with writing, but it was a lot easier to go home and force myself to do it and not have my brain screaming for air. So, point is, writing jobs are great for learning and are a great platform for doing specific kinds of things with writing (not to mention getting a paycheck, however meager it might be), but for writers serious about pursuing a passion, it’s hard. Not impossible, but hard.

That being said, for those of you who have menial or repetitive jobs that don’t have anything to do with writing, you  might actually be better off than someone in a more writing-oriented environment, where their creative energies are spent by the time they get home. I’ve been in both situations, so you’re not alone.