Work or Hobby?

Do you treat writing as a job or hobby.  That makes all the difference in the world.  My will to write ebbs and flows like the tides at a beach.  I go through periods of time where I write every waking moment.  I cannot walk away from by chromebook, and if I do then I think about what I will write when I return to it.  Then there are other times when I avoid it like the plague.  I make every excuse I can so as to not write.  Unfortunately the I do not feel like writing periods far outweigh the I want to write periods.  Why is that?

Well I have been thinking about this and I think I have an answer.  At least an answer that pertains to me.  I think it’s something that a lot of people can identify with.  To me writing is a hobby.  What does that mean?  Well to me a hobby is something you want to do.  Something I do in my spare time.  Something I do to both relax and to spend some of my valuable time on.

Once I start to treat it as a job I no longer look at it the same way.  Now I am not so relaxed.  Its a job I have to do it well.  I have to produce something.  

See what I mean?  It makes a difference, work or hobby.  How you treat your writing as well as your personality will make the difference.  I spend 7-10 hours a day, five days a week at my day job.  It takes on average 1 ½ hours to drive home from my job.  By the time I have dinner and help my wife clean up its always at least 8:00 every evening.  That does not leave me much time for a second job or a hobby.

Well that's my problem and I’m sure its a problem for countless others.  How you handle will differ but it has to be handled if you are to succeed.  I choose to still consider writing a hobby.  In that way I will produce maybe not as much as some others but at least I will enjoy what I am doing.  Maybe as time goes on I will change how I think, but for now I choose to call this my hobby.