Clicking Our Heels - Writing: Passion or Work?

Clicking Our Heels – Writing: Passion or Work?

Stiletto Gang members all write, but the question is why? Read on to find out whether we consider writing a job, a passion or a hobby and whether our emotional reaction to it has changed.

Kay Kendall – I consider writing to be my calling. I have always written, even in my previous job. I just never wrote fiction before I took it up ca. 1999. I didn’t think I had any stories to tell. Now I do have them. I just needed more confidence, and a bit of age, in order to feel comfortable in telling my stories. 

Linda Rodriguez – To me, writing is my vocation, which means it’s my job, but it’s also a passion.

If I never needed to earn another dollar again, I would still write.

Sparkle Abbey – It’s always been a passion and for both of us simply a part of who we are. Like many others we’ve always written and have had a love for words. Since signing a contract for our first four books in 2010, it’s had to become more of a job because we have deadlines to deal with. That’s been an adjustment but one we’re okay with. We just signed a contract for more books, so we’re excited to continue writing the Pampered Pets mystery series. 

Cathy Perkins – Writing is both a (second) job and a passion. Being time constrained takes a toll on me, especially when my creative side has to take a back seat to the part of my life that comes with a paycheck. Fortunately, my husband sleeps through me turning on the light at 3 A> to scribble down scene ideas and snippets of dialogue. What, your subconscious doesn’t keep right on writing at night? 

Kimberly Jayne – Writing is definitely not a hobby for me. It’s a job that I’m passionate about, although I dislike referring to it as a “job,” which for me carries a negative connotation. It reminds me too much of the day jobs I’ve had over my lifetime that I didn’t want to go to each day but, of course, had to. Writing has become more important to me over the years because I feel, like many, that time is running out to achieve the many writing goals I had set for myself when I was in my twenties. If fulfills me in a way it didn’t previously as well, which I think comes from acquiring the confidence and competence in my skills and talents that I didn’t have when I was young. 

Debra H. Goldstein – Passion. I walked away from a lifetime judicial appointment to pursue writing, at whatever level I am capable of, because of the joy it gives. 

Paffi S. Flood – As a job. I have a routine to where I’m at my laptop every morning at 9:00 to do something. It isn’t always writing. It could be something as simple as plotting out a scene for clarity,

but I do it. That’s the only way I can make progress on my manuscript.

Jennae Phillippe – All of the above. Sometimes it feels like more work than other times. I am at my best when I can tap into writing as a passion, and at my worse when it feels like a chore. I think when I start to think like a publisher and imagine what sort of stories are marketable, it feels the most like a job, and when I think like that 14-year-old kid who just wanted to write fantastical stories, I enjoy it the most. I just need to think like a marketing savvy 14-year-old and I’ll crack the writing code. 

Bethany Maines – With my day job as a graphic designer, I’ve learned that having a passion IS work. But writing has evolved over time to be something that was just for me, into something that is more outward facing and shaped for an exterior audience. 

Paula Gail Benson – Yes. Since 2013, when I seriously began making submissions, it has been a job. It remains a passion. It’s no longer just a hobby, because even if I’m writing to help a group with which I’m affiliated, I have to take credit for my prose and know it will be judged with professional standards.