If you could write full time, would you?

[EJ Heijnis]

I think this is such an important point to make.

In the 1990's, when I first tried to write seriously, I stayed at home to write. That cut me off from the world and all its life experiences. It meant my biggest inspiration for characters wasn't real people, but instead stereotypes from fiction. None of this was healthy.

I suspect that's why good writers tend to be middle-aged and above - as a generalisation they should be expected to have a wider range of life experience to draw on to make a story more real and engaging, with more believable characters.

After putting aside my hopes and dreams in favor of pursuing a "real" career, I didn't write a word for years. My job was very challenging, and I learned a lot about myself, the people I was in charge of, and the people who were in charge of me. I worked with a huge variety of individuals, including some rock-solid characters and some real-life villains. I came to understand the reasons and motivations for all kinds of behaviors, and I found out I could empathize with people I completely disagreed with. It took me eight years to get back to writing (not counting two aborted novels - they were better off dead,) and when I did, I discovered my writing had transformed. Just like you say, I had been writing from stereotypes, copying three-dimensional characters into flat caricatures because I didn't understand there was so much more to them. After eight years of endless interaction with managers, employees, and customers, I'd begun to understand people. I could finally write about them, instead of events.

I also felt much better about failing my initial goal of being a wunderkind, although by age 16, I figured I'd already missed the boat on that one.

 

[Brian G Turner]

After putting aside my hopes and dreams in favor of pursuing a "real" career, I didn't write a word for years. My job was very challenging, and I learned a lot about myself, the people I was in charge of, and the people who were in charge of me. I worked with a huge variety of individuals, including some rock-solid characters and some real-life villains. ... It took me eight years to get back to writing (not counting two aborted novels - they were better off dead,) and when I did, I discovered my writing had transformed.

I can totally relate to this. I thought I'd finished my WIP in 2001, but the moment I got feedback it was made clear that I didn't know how to write. And I couldn't even begin to fix that until I did.

I spent the next 9 years raising a family, starting a business, and even travelling abroad for the first time. Lots of life experience to draw on.

Then in 2010 I realised I had a choice: push hard to rebuild the business, and all the stress that would entail; or push on with learning to write and reading my genre to go back to my original goal.

Which is exactly what I've done.

The irony is that the skills I learned setting up and marketing my writing website allowed me to sign-off from unemployment and run what became - for a few years - a wildly successful business.

And now it's coming full circle.

 

[F.J. Hansen]

If someone would pay me regularly and enough to get by comfortably, and if I could do it by working on my own projects... Certainly, I would write full time.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I'd always want to have a couple of days working in a 'real' job to get out & about.