Going Full-time or Not

Going Full-time or Not Part of the reason so many people want to write full-time  is to escape the responsibilities of the day job, the commute, and all the baggage that comes with working for someone else. Truth is, writing full-time  is not all its cracked up to be. You experience the pressure of juggling when you have a day job and then attempt to write at night, during lunch, or on weekends. If you wrote full-time  life would be so much less stressful, or so you think. But writing full-time  means you also have to squeeze writing into your day, because once you become your own boss, you are faced with: 1) estimated taxes, more serious bookkeeping, and administrative duties consuming 10 to 20 percent of your day; 2) marketing, which consumes a minimum of 20 percent of your day; 3) researching business techniques, keeping up with the industry, learning how to publish differently, vetting publishers/agents/clients consuming 10 to 20 percent of your day if not more. Suddenly you realize most of your day is still committed to items you dont enjoy doing . . . just like when you worked the day job. As a full-time  writer, I cannot keep up with the changes in freelancing, blogging, podcasting, publishing, and marketing. As hard as I try, I end the day a little frustrated, feeling like I lag behind so many others. The truth is, you cannot learn it all nor do it all. You write what you like, and you publish the best you can. You market intelligently instead of just checking it off your to-do list. But you cannot be like all the other writers out there. They are also ignoring aspects of the profession, because they, too, cannot work everything into their day. You have to remember to keep this profession fun. When it ceases to be enjoyable, stop and rethink what you are doing. Better to work the full-time  day job and enjoy your writing at night than be dragged into a full-time  writing business and have it suck the life out of your joy.