I often struggle with what I do for a living, in the sense that I’m always asking myself, “Is this valid? Am I allowed to do this for a living? Is this a real job?” Perhaps you have these same questions, either aloud or in the back of your mind, and perhaps you even argue with other people about whether or not what you’re doing counts as work.
Why do we have these struggles?
I think the struggle comes from the idea that we don’t all think of work by its very basic definition. If you look up the word “work” in a thesaurus, you’ll find things like labor, toil, exertion, slog, drudgery, struggle, trial, grind, obligation, pains, salt mines, etc. You don’t see any synonyms in the thesaurus for “work” that are positive — so for example, I didn’t see anything like, “a joyous fulfillment of one’s true calling and purpose in life.” I just saw the depressing stuff.
When I think about writing, I think of it in positive terms. I think of writing as both work and fun, which is where a lot of my struggle comes from. The perception of work itself seems to be negative, and since I find my work enjoyable, the question becomes, “is writing hard work”?
Culturally, we have equated work with misery, and we don’t 100% know what to do with work that is fulfilling and sometimes fun.
Is writing HARD work?
We’ve established that yes, writing is in fact work —but is it HARD work? Firstly, I think it depends on what your definition of “hard work” is. I believe working hard and being a hard worker is completely individualized. Hard work is a state of putting a lot of yourself, a lot of effort, and a lot of strain into your work.
There are people who want to invalidate writing because we’re not on our feet for 14 hours a day. We don’t lug heavy equipment or materials around day after day. We’re not physically suffering. Those jobs are physically hard, and the idea of sitting at a computer writing does not seem hard in comparison.
For writers, the hard work comes from figuring out how to craft a compelling narrative that people will not hate, how to craft believable characters who people will fall in love with and want to learn more about. How to craft a world that is somehow understandable, but also unique from all of the other worlds out there.
No matter the profession, you will get people who show up and do the bare minimum and go home. Some writers invest themselves fully in their work, they hone their skills, they master their craft. They put in years of learning, and education, and reading, and practice… so much practice. Many writers are extremely hard workers.
There are so many different types of jobs, and different types of hard work comes with different types of struggle. I want to reject the idea that work equals misery, that work equals suffering, because it’s something that drags me down, and I think it drags a lot of people down. It doesn’t have to be that way. It shouldn’t.
I run several writer’s groups, and I often see writers talking about how they struggle with explaining their love of writing to other people who are not writers, other people who maybe look down on them or tell them that their work is not valid. I’m curious if this is something that you’ve struggled with as well, or something that you’ve overcome, or something that you are even just starting to think about. I would love to hear your thoughts.
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Full Episode Transcript (click to expand!)
This is the Write Now Podcast with Sarah Werner. Episode 115: Is Writing Hard Work?
Welcome to Write Now, the podcast that helps all writers, aspiring, professional, and otherwise, to find the time, energy, and courage you need to pursue your passion and write. I’m your host, Sarah Werner.
This question of whether or not writing is hard work has been bouncing around in my brain for the past year and a half, maybe longer. Because I often struggle with what I do for a living, in the sense that I’m always asking myself, “Is this valid? Am I allowed to do this for a living? Is this a real job?” And some guilt about, “I can’t believe I get to do this as a job,” and then that’s juxtaposed with the fact that, for me, writing started as a hobby. It was something that I did, I’m going to say for fun, but we’re going to get into this a little bit more later. But, it’s something that I initially did for fun, as a hobby. And, the writing itself didn’t change between being a hobby for me and being a job for me, the writing didn’t change.
I’m often very, very curious about what it means to write, whether writing is work, or play, or some kind of mixture of both. And, if writing is fun and easy, why is it not fun and easy sometimes? Or, most of the time. We’re going to sort through a lot of these questions and confusions today.
Okay, because I’m a total nerd, first and foremost I’m going to start by talking about work. What is work? I looked it up. Work is “activity involving mental or physical effort, done to achieve a purpose or result.” That’s apparently what work is. So is the act of writing an activity involving mental or physical effort, done to achieve a purpose or result? Yes. We’re putting in mental, and physical because you’re writing, you’re typing, it’s an action that you’re physically doing with your body. Or, maybe you’re even just dictating, in which case you are still speaking and that is an activity. It is a physical and mental activity that we do, to achieve a purpose or result. That is a published work, a finished story, a poem that we can read during open mic night, a memoir. We do a thing to do a thing. So yes, by its very, very most basic definition, writing is work.
Why do I have all of these weird hangups, and questions and hesitations about writing as work? I’m speaking for myself here, but maybe you have these questions, too. Maybe these are things that you struggle with within the back of your mind, or maybe the forefront of your mind. Maybe this is something that you struggle with and argue with other people about, whether or not what you’re doing counts as work. Why do we have these struggles?
I think it begins with the idea that we don’t all think of work by its very basic definition. So that definition that I just read to you, I don’t think that’s how most people think about work. I got my definition of work from a dictionary, but if you look in a thesaurus, if you look up work, you’ll find things like labor, toil, exertion, slog, drudgery, struggle, trial, grind, obligation, pains, salt mines. You don’t see any synonyms in the thesaurus, or at least when I looked on thesaurus.com, I didn’t really see any synonyms for work that were positive. I didn’t see anything like, “a joyous fulfillment of one’s true calling and purpose in life.” I didn’t see that, I just saw the depressing stuff.
But, when I think about my life’s work, I think about it in more positive terms. I feel very strongly called to write and create, and fulfilling my purpose brings me deep joy and satisfaction. Hilariously, the first antonym, the opposite of the word work, that I saw listed was fun. That’s how we think about work, culturally, societally? Do we think of work as the polar opposite of fun? I think this is where my struggle begins to be articulated, is because I think of writing as both work and fun. This is also why I feel so much guilt about what I do, because what I do … Okay, this is so messed up, but writing is fun but it’s also a huge struggle, and it’s very frustrating and we’ll get into this a little bit moving forward.
But, I also feel like the way it’s perceived by other people is that I’m just sitting at my desk, wandering through castles and having imaginary battles with dragons, and making my characters fall in love, and it’s the most fun and whimsical thing that I can do all day. There are all of these other people’s perceptions that work is negative, that writing is just playing, it’s lazy, it’s whatever. There’s just so much going on here. There’s so much going on here.
I also realized that I mentioned the word guilt, and if you want to hear more about writer’s guilt, if that is something that you deal with or struggle with, go back and listen to episode 112 of the Write Now podcast, it’s called Writer’s Guilt. I hope it will help you.
We’re also not going to talk, in this episode, about whether the writing is the kind of work that deserves to be paid, whether writers deserve to be paid. I have a completely separate episode about this, as long as I’m referring you to other episodes. If you’re interested in whether or not writers deserve to be paid, you should go back and listen to episode 41 of the Write Now podcast, it’s just called Should Writers Be Paid. Spoiler, yes. If you want to hear why go back and listen to that episode. We’re not going to talk about financial compensation in today’s episode of the Write Now podcast.
But, we are going to talk about is writing work, is writing a play, is it somewhere in between, is it both simultaneously at the same time, is it neither. Why are we even asking this question in the first place? I started asking myself this question in the first place because I felt the need to justify what I was doing with my life. I’ve done all sorts of writing throughout my career. I’ve done content marketing, I’ve written for Forbes, I’ve ghostwritten seven books, I’m always working on some kind of novel for myself. I lead writing groups, I teach writing, I have a published writing project in the form of a podcast called Girl In Space, it’s a fictional sci-fi adventure. And recently, I’ve even been paid to write for TV. From non-fiction to fiction, and everywhere in between, I’ve spent a lot of time writing.
I’ve also spent a lot of time explaining to other people what I do for a living and seeing their reactions which are always very interesting. I’ve talked to people who themselves are writers, and who I think are envious of the position I’m in, and when I speak to them I can see that they’re jealous or envious of what I get to do for a living. Because what I do for a living is what they do in their free time, usually in an unpaid capacity. They do it because they’re compelled to do it, they do it because they love to do it, and they wish that they could justify doing that and not having to also have a side job or other means of full-time employment.
I’ve also talked to be people on the other end of the spectrum. I’ve talked about this on the show before, but there is one person of my acquaintance who continues to consider me funemployed. So this portmanteau of someone who is unemployed, and who also just spends their day having fun, which is insulting because I work really hard.
Then, there are the articles that you see online, that talk about writing isn’t real work, being a writer isn’t a real job. These articles are all over the place online, and it’s debated in a way that other jobs are not debated. Nobody says, “Is being a plumber a real job? Is being a zookeeper a real job? Is being a coal miner a real job? Is being a doctor a real job? Is being a teacher, is that a real job?” What’s going on here? True, a lot of writers don’t make money, and that is, again, a whole nother thing. That’s its own topic. Maybe it’s simply because, for so many people, writing is a hobby. But if you think about it, some people fix up cars for fun, but you would never consider someone who’s a mechanic as not having a real job.
Does it come down to the question of whether we enjoy our work? Whether our work is, as the thesaurus says, the very antithesis of fun. Whether work is, indeed, depressing, drudgery, toil, suffering, misery. I think culturally, we have equated, for years, and years, and years, this is not a new thing, we equate work with misery and we don’t 100% know what to do with work that is fulfilling and sometimes fun.
I have another friend who insists that writing should be easy since it was something that I feel like I was made to do and something that I feel compelled to do, and something that I feel called to do. “It should be easy,” she says very simply. I think about her a lot when it’s 6:30 AM, and I am trying to wrap my brain around how to make this plot move forward, how I can craft a compelling narrative that people will not hate, how I can craft believable characters who people will fall in love with and want to learn more about. How I can craft a world that is somehow understandable, but also unique from all of the other worlds out there. I think about this a lot when it’s 10 PM and my eyes are bloodshot. When I’ve been staring at the screen, beating myself up mentally, telling myself I’m no good. Telling myself, “This is so much easier for other writers.” Or, it looks easier for other writers. When I sink into despair and I wonder why am I even doing this in the first place?
I was thinking about this, as I read a particular, I don’t know what the word I want to use here is … The word that first came to mind was vile, but I don’t want to be nasty and name-calling, so a particularly challenging piece of writing, ironically, about how writing is not hard work. The author, to paraphrase, is writing is not hard work, writing is fun. It takes dedication, but it’s not hard work. Do you know what hard work is? Hard work is going into a coal mine and hurting your body. Hard work is performing surgery on a thankless patient. You’re 14 hours in, and you’re sweating and you’re miserable, that’s hard work. Hard work is walking to the factory uphill both ways. Hard work is working in a fish cannery, and slicing the guts out of dead fish. Yeah, I’m not going to argue, that’s hard work, and it’s gross, and it sucks. I don’t think I am physically capable of doing it. I am not good at hard physical labor. I have a TedX talk about this, you can watch it out on my website at sarahwerner.com.
This article just upset me so much, because what it does is sets up a false dichotomy. It sets up this false construct of this but not that, hard work is physical pain and only physical pain. Yeah, I get it dude, you’ve had some bad jobs. You’ve had some physically demanding, terrible jobs. But, that doesn’t mean that what other people are doing isn’t difficult. It doesn’t somehow invalidate the fact that other things are difficult. It’s really easy to get into a place where you are competing with someone else to be the most miserable, and that is a spiral I don’t want to go down. Because all it does is lead you into thinking that you are a victim, all it does is lead to a victim mindset, and whoever is the biggest victim ends up being the biggest winner. I don’t want to play that game. I’ve played it before and it sucks.
Yeah, compared to being in a coal mine anything else is going to look like a cushy daydream. But that doesn’t mean that those other professions are not valid and that they’re not difficult in their way, and their own right. You’re not going to get a rejection letter if you’re a coal miner. You’re not going to live in a space where literally nobody wants to read, or participate in, or engage with your work. Again, I don’t want to enter into this comparison competition, but I think that we’re sophisticated enough that we can appreciate that different types of jobs, different types of hard work come with different types of struggle. I want to reject the idea that work equals misery, that work equals suffering because it’s something that drags me down, and I think it drags a lot of people down.
We become complacent in this idea that “Oh, well I’m making money, therefore I must suffer for it.” I know a lot of people are in jobs that are exactly like that, but we don’t have to be. Thinking that work is necessarily misery and suffering keeps us trapped in jobs that keep us miserable and suffering because we don’t know that it can be better. We don’t know that we can do more of what we want to do.
But maybe the question comes, “All right Sarah, we’ve established that writing is work. But, is writing hard work?” I think it depends on the kind of writing that you’re doing. I think it depends on what your definition of hard work is. Maybe writing is work, but coal mining is hard work. I can only speak for my own experience. But, I think that working hard and being a hard worker is completely individualized. Hard work is a state of putting a lot of yourself, a lot of effort, a lot of strain into your work. I think that some writers are hard workers, and some writers are not hard workers. Just like some coal miners are probably hard workers, and some coal miners are probably not hard workers.
I think in any profession, you’re going to get people who just show up to collect a paycheck. There’s maybe a writer out there who does the bare minimum, who types out a lazy script and doesn’t put a lot of thought into character motivation, or world-building. Someone who has been tasked with writing a script, and they write a script and it is full of cliches, and it is unoriginal, and it is uninspired. They did not put in hard work. But then, some writers invest themselves fully in their work, they hone their skills, they master their craft. They put in years of learning, and education, and reading, and practice, so much practice. Some writers are extremely hard workers.
The way that we get paid, and the way that we get recognized is not always fair, and a lot of that’s outside of our control. Some of the best and hardest working writers might be completely unknown. And some of the laziest writers might be making a ton of money. I can’t speak to that. What I can speak to is that yes, writing is legitimate work, and often it’s very hard work. It’s difficult work, it’s frustrating work, it’s thankless work. It’s unpaid work. But, if we do it to discover and elucidate meaning, and to communicate character, and thought, and dream, and hope, and vision, then I think that we’re putting in the hard work.
I left with a final question. Why do some of us do things that are really, really hard for fun? Why is writing a hobby for so many people? Why do we choose to do it, when often we are not getting paid to do it? Why does that person who fixes up old cars, why do they do that work? Maybe for the hope of eventually selling the car and making money, just like the novelist eventually hopes to sell the novel and make money. But, I don’t think that’s 100% why they’re doing it. I think that it’s very common among writers to have this sense of compulsion. For me, if I am not writing or creating, I am not happy, I am not satisfied, I am not fulfilled as a human being. I get depressed, and I get sick. It’s very visceral.
I think a lot of us find challenges fun. It’s the reason so many people like putting together puzzles and reading mysteries, we like to be challenged. And in a way, it’s fun. It’s work, but it’s fun. I think that this is the concept that our society, our culture does not allow because it’s at complete odds with all of our ideas about capitalism and how we keep people struggling, and living paycheck-to-paycheck in often very difficult and miserable jobs, for less than a living wage. I love writing. Writing is hard work. These are both true. And, I think both are worth a lot more of our time and thought.
Speaking of which, I am curious about what you think. I run several writers groups, and I often see writers talking about how they struggle with explaining their love of writing to other people who are not writers, other people who maybe look down on them or tell them that their work is not valid. I’m curious if this is something that you’ve struggled with as well, or something that you’ve overcome, or something that you are even just starting to think about. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can let me know your direct comments and thoughts over on my website, sarahwerner.com, that’s S-A-R-A-H-W-E-R-N-E-R.com. You can navigate to the show notes for today’s episode, it’s essentially a blog post for today’s episode. Today’s episode is episode number 115. Are you tired of me saying the word episode yet? It’s called Is Writing Hard Work. Go on out to my website, navigate to episode 115, scroll down to the bottom of the post and you’ll see a section for comments. I would love to hear your thoughts there, and I do respond to every single comment that comes through my website.
I know in previous episodes of the Write Now podcast, I invite you to email me. Unfortunately, I am in a place with an email where I don’t have the bandwidth to necessarily personally respond to every single I get, but I do respond to every single comment out on my website. So I invite you to engage in conversation there. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about whether or not writing is work, or hard work, or whatever you want to talk about there.
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That’s a lot of information, so come join us if you want to. It’s just a really good time, it’s a very warm and nurturing community. I would just love to see you there. With that, this has been … Yes. With that, this has been episode 115 of the Write Now podcast, the podcast that helps all writers, aspiring, professional, and otherwise, to find the time, energy, and courage you need to pursue your passion and write. I’m Sarah Werner, and I’m going to go do some hard work.
Hi, there! Writing is _hard work_. I avoided it like fire in my twenties. I did not want to write because it’s mentally and emotionally draining. And even if I got paid for it, that money would take me nowhere (I write in my native tongue, spoken by approx. 15 million people.) I wanted to do something for a living I didn’t have to explain because it’s socially acceptable and pays well. There came a time in my life when I realised I had lost most of the things I worked for, so I’m free to do whatever (and it did occur to me that I could write my book.). First, I started to learn programming – a reasonable choice. Then I was reminded of the existence of an old schoolmate who once expressed he had no respect for what I did (at a certain point in my life, I translated TV shows.). Coincidentally, he works in IT. So I had a long argument with him in my mind, and I told him that I personally consider art more useful than whatever he’s doing because art has been around since the emergence of humanity, and it continues to entertain and heal people today. And in that imagined scenario, I realised that – unfortunately – writing is also a calling. I said goodbye to programming and started writing my book because, silly as it may seem to people, telling a story that can touch people’s hearts has more value in my eyes than whatever pays for a holiday abroad. So whoever says writers are useless or “funemployed” have different values than I do. And that’s OK. Thank you for your podcast, Sarah, it always helps when I feel down or have doubts!
Lucy, thank you so much for sharing your own experience. I appreciate your insights so much!
This resonated with me as well. I have always been interested in writing and majored in Creative Writing in English in college, but I focused my work career on another interest-counseling. Now, I have been in management in a behavioral health clinic for over a decade. People who disparage writing don’t know what writing is or what it entails. In government, writing is a valuable skill and specialty. Writing is needed all the time for formulating policies and procedures, proposing projects, writing grants, fulfilling requirements to grants, doing analyst work, etc. Writing was invaluable to me when I went to graduate school which focused primarily on term papers, not tests. What’s most interesting about your episode was the discussion of what work is, and what people perceive it to be. The idea that work must be hard, difficult, or unpleasant was often echoed by my father who was a workaholic who found work stressful. I also think there is a strong anti-intellectual bias in our culture, and the idea that work must be physical is not true obviously, but the idea is pervasive. Keep doing discussions of what work is. Thanks!
Brock, thank you so much for listening, and for sharing your thoughts! I also think I first learned about work being stressful and unpleasant from my father… I have a lot of questions for his generation. I hope you’re well and that you’re finding time to write for yourself as well! – Sarah
Hi Sarah…oh my goodness this episode really resonated (as so many of them do!) It feels as though my whole working life has been justifying what I do. I’ve always been a food professional, in many capacities – I started as a chef (I was a Head Chef at 24) and then opened a deli which I owned for 5 years. For the past 17 I’ve owned a small bakery, and I supply shops, restaurants and cafes with cakes, cookies and desserts as well as having an online brownie business for 5 years (now discontinued as it just got too big for me!) sending chocolate brownies all over the UK and into Europe too. Following on from Dani’s comment above, I think that because everybody cooks – or has the ability to cook – in some way, it’s perceived as an ‘easy job’ in the same way that writing can be. Unless you are deemed ‘prestigious’ (a position in a well-known restaurant perhaps, or the author of a bestselling novel) and can ‘prove’ your worth, I think that many people think that a job like this is something that anyone could do with minimal effort. So, so wrong. I don’t, in fact, talk about my writing to anyone except members of my writing group and my author/mentor friend. I think my age and experience (I’m 54) enables me to feel much happier in my skin and, in my experience, most people are really more interested in talking about themselves..and I’m content to listen. But I had years of, honestly, patronising comments such as “oh, how wonderful -we love to give dinner parties, I’ve often said to my husband that we should open a restaurant…” There’s definitely a perceived hierarchy in the job world. In reality I think that anything you do to the best of your ability and that you find fulfilling and – crucially – that pays the bills is valid employment….whether it’s brain surgery or cleaning bathrooms. We’re all needed to provide a rounded and complete world. I feel, as you do, the constant need to create – I feel physically ill if I’m unable to for any length of time and my mental health definitely suffers. I did work in an office for a while, about 20 years ago, as I (influenced by my partner at the time) thought it was maybe a good idea to try a ‘real’ job. I enjoyed the team element but it was so stifling creatively…I ended up bringing homemade lunches in every Friday (I created weekly menus for my colleagues to choose from) and set up an office wellness routine with a visiting head & neck masseur! It just wasn’t right for me to be inputting information into computers all day. But for others it was a fulfilling job, and that’s great! Those who seek to judge others are the bane of modern life in my opinion (unless they are actual judges!) Thanks for a great podcast, you do a wonderful job!
Rachel, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! Wow. I would never think working in a kitchen (and running your own business!) is an “easy” job… you ROCK! Wow. The “We should open a restaurant” you heard at dinner parties came, as you know, from ignorance and perhaps a sideways attempt to flatter you… maybe? I love that you brought your own passion even into your office job… that says a lot about you. Please keep writing and following your heart. The world needs your voice! — Sarah
I think there’s this assumption that “anyone can write” because, technically, yes, most people are literate. Almost everyone can put pen to paper, or use a device, to write words down. I have been asked by friends and family to write a lot of things – from formal letters to eulogies- because I “write pretty”. And I understand how they see that as a useful skill, but not as work, because those were small favors.
I think it’s hard for people who don’t do creative writing (or have never tried it) to understand how hard it can be sometimes, even when it’s “just” done for fun. As a whole, I feel a lot of creative endeavors are seen as lesser -especially if they’re typically done by women, like for example knitting- because there’s this feeling of “well, if you don’t need a degree for it, then it’s basically Unskilled Labor™ and anyone can do it”. And if 99,9% of people know how to write, then how hard can it be?
But, as someone who knows how to knit, I can say: you may not need formal training, but it does take a lot of learning, practice, skills, and work. Not exhausting work, but definitely time consuming work. I feel a similar way about writing.
(This is, incidentally, why a lot of hand knitted things are expensive. They take a lot of time to make.)
I don’t think I’ve heard people disparaging writing because it’s not physical labor, like you said in this episode. Thankfully, or I might have yelled at them. Honestly, it’s a dumb argument, because many well respected professions that also take hard work aren’t hard physical labor, like medicine, architecture, accounting or being a lawyer. Most modern jobs aren’t as physically demanding as mining or construction, but that doesn’t mean they’re not “hard work”.
Is writing hard work? In a purely physical way, not really. But neither are a lot of Real Jobs™. Is it hard work in the sense that it takes time and energy, and should be compensated? Yes, absolutely.
Anyone who disagrees is invited to pen me a short story, or even just an essay, explaining their reasoning in a compelling way. I will take points off for spelling and grammar.
Hello Sarah. First of all, I love your podcast so much and often return to it when I need to lift my writing spirit. As a writer and an artist, I resonate with this SO MUCH. In the past, friends have asked me to write things like resumes, reviews, or professional correspondence for free. I think it’s because they didn’t view these tasks as actual work. Maybe it’s because everyone in the digital age can “write”. But there’s not enough value placed on the fact that not everyone can write “well”. I also think it’s harder for writers to show progress with work. Artists and musicians can show their progress with unfinished sketches and demos. For example, if we change a scene in our story, thinking of that new scene could have taken hours or even days. People only see the word count. And oftentimes it’s so hard to get people to even read your writing! Ha. I think that if we continue insisting that writing is hard work, eventually we can change society’s perception. Thank you for your hard work with your podcast. Happy writing.
Hi Natasha! Ooof, this is all SO TRUE! There are so many days where I do SO MUCH writing work and ultimately, because of the delete button, have “nothing” to show for it — or worse, a negative wordcount! Thank you for sharing! -Sarah
Hi Sarah! This podcast episode was the first one I’ve listened to since redownloading the Apple Podcast app. Wow. You shared exactly what I needed to hear. When I was a child, someone I looked up to told me that they desperately hated their job but had to keep it because “that’s life”. I couldn’t wrap my head around this idea, and that conversation sat with me ever since. I’ve always loved writing, but suppressed my desire to write because I was raised with the belief that it wasn’t a real job. Every job path I took a trip down felt forced and unnatural. It took a long time for me to realize that I was holding myself back from being happy. I want to work hard at doing what I love and feel called to do. Thank you for this!
Hi and welcome back, Melissa! 🙂 I’m so glad this episode resonated with you. Writing is a real job and real work and I want you to follow your calling! Happy writing! – Sarah