Balancing Work and Passion as a Writer
Balancing work and passions is hard. For writers, it can be even harder.
It is difficult to find out what you love to do.
It is even more difficult to find out how to get paid to do what you love to do.
I’m a writer. As you may guess, I love writing. To make a living as a writer I work as a journalist. I have a great passion for the work I do everyday — business and markets reporting, as well as climate and technology writing. I considered myself lucky. Still, I came into journalism, and continue it to this day, because of my first love of writing.
While putting words to paper is a skill set, it is also a way of thinking, and stems from a need for expression. I feel a constant tug to get my thoughts on paper and then share them into the void. In answering this tug, by writing everyday, I have found my voice and interests, and discovered how to best leverage my skills and interests for a paycheck.
I don’t write because I feel a need to be read; I write because I cannot exist otherwise. This, I think, has helped me maintain a great pace and discipline in the craft of writing.
Each day, I publish news stories and explainers on topics ranging from cryptocurrencies to stocks to NFTs. This type of writing is challenging because it is a bit more rigid than, say, the dramatic fiction stories I love to publish.
Yet, the discipline I’ve learned from business writing allow me to better appreciate the times when I can let my imagination lead the way in fiction. Plus, I’ve become a far more precise, careful writer.
Because I write for my job every single day, I have no trouble with writer’s block, for fiction or journalism. I write because I must perform in my job, and this has trained me to write things outside my job with efficiency and accuracy.
This winding spiel is my way of describing how passion and work can prove complementary for writers. The discipline of one can bolster the ability to perform the other. Obstacles must be overcome and pressure (sometimes) mounts when a paycheck is on the line.
But then, writing for a job acts as training for the writing you do on your own time. Yesterday, for example, I published two articles on cryptocurrency markets, but also wrote a flash fiction story. Work and love, coexisting. It takes practice and discipline to allow this to be so.
The wild ambition and care-free attitude of youth needs the discipline of self-awareness and experience. That’s wisdom. I let my thoughts run wild in my fiction, then the discipline of business writing keeps me grounded.
What you love to do and what you need to do aren't always the same thing. But making time for both is what makes you better.
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