Acquired from the internet hive mind
Seriously
Two approaches are available to writing: debutante hobby and professional career. Both are legitimate options. Which path to take depends on your goals, the success you want. (See previous post on defining Success for yourself.)
I just ran across an interesting post A.J. Hartley made a while back, you know the award-winning, NY Times best-selling author of SteepleJack and Macbeth: A Novel. That A.J. Hartley. Back in 2010 he wrote: Mistakes I made Part III: Writing as Hobby. He talked about the twenty years he played at writing while teaching Shakespeare as a college professor. The post (and the related entries of the series) capture his change from writing as a hobby to a career.
Was he wrong not to treat it as a career sooner? Was the time he spend with it as a hobby wasted: writing, playing, learning the craft of writing? Would he be the author he is today without the twenty years of practice?
While the world slumbers this winter (or for those in the Southern Hemisphere, during the heat of the summer), think on how you should define your writing success. Should it be a hobby or a career? What should it be right now, and what might you want in twenty years? Would it be okay for it to be a hobby in your 30’s and a career for your 60’s? Should you treat it as a 10-hour a week professional part-time job for the immediate future to test your BIC capability?
See the full post here while you consider: http://www.magicalwords.net/aj-hartley/mistakes-i-made-part-iii-writing-as-hobby/