Should I have become a writer?
I have always romanticised the idea of being a writer. A lot of people think it must be easy to choose creativity over practicality, because a lot of people like to insist that the arts and literature are not careers but hobbies. We already know that they’re wrong about this, despite the struggle of actually being a writer — both financially and in terms of life balance.
I am not a full-time writer, and yet, in a way, I am. Full-time work in Australia is described as ‘38 hours of labour each week’ and I would say my weekly labour exceeds this. I write every night. And sometimes writing looks like:
- being active on social media (Instagram posts, TikTok, Youtube, here on Medium)
- editing, proofreading, proofreading again
- making graphics to promote my work
- working on audio or video elements that support, or uphold, my work
- filling out invoices, keeping track of bank accounts and funds
- applying for grants and funding
- visiting markets, festivals and events that are used to sell and promote my work
And so on, and so on. Writing doesn’t just look like pen-to-page, fingertip-to-key, but we already know this. There are other activities involved that make this gig very much a full-time thing. My…
