Writing As A Sole Career

I was having a conversation earlier about what I would do if I ever stopped my current day job. Right now I am a part time table games dealer at one of the large casinos along the Las Vegas Strip. It is tremendous fun and something I find exciting as well as intellectually challenging in several ways. It affords me the opportunity to be a performer, challenge my mind with various games and to meet new people every day.

I also have a degree in marketing. I have long considered that I would focus either on promotional marketing campaigns, perhaps in the advertising realm but more likely in an area such as promotional events. I also had a minor in my degree of marketing research. I think it could be very interesting to delve further into research and development for new as well as existing products. It is interesting to me to discover what makes people respond to a particular product or service and to find creative ways to reach new audiences.

I use some of this same interest in my writing as I learn how to reach new readers as well as develop my craft in a way that lets me tell the stories I have burning inside me while at the same time creating worlds that others would want to share. The one thing I thought about the most during my conversation though was that I do not think it would benefit me to leave my job for the pursuit of being a full time writer. I know to many that is absolute insanity but the truth is that I feel devoting myself to it full time would actually cause a decline in my ability to even do it.

I get so many of my ideas from the people I meet and the places I go that it would be detrimental to cut myself off and stay home or in a coffeehouse to focus solely on the task of writing. While yes I could still talk to people, do things like go to the gym and of course attend writing events and groups I think for me personally it is imperative that I have a scheduled set of breaks that pull me out of my own head and force me to concentrate on other topics.

If I was to make it financially to a point that I could stop working at a punch the clock kind of job then it would also have to me substantial enough of an income in order to allow for international travel and the ability to do dedicated volunteer work both domestically and oversees. My opportunities to travel the world as well as the wonderful people that have come into my life in all of the incredible location I have explored have helped shape me and therefore they also have a dramatic effect on my resource well for inspiration.

I feel that if I was to focus only on writing and attending writing related events I would end up creating events just to get me out and meeting new people. Eventually the events would probably not even have to do with the books themselves. In fact if writing were my only job it would probably begin to feel like pressure and cause it to become a burden which would make me pull away from it entirely. It was a shock to realize that the one job I want more than anything could, for me, be a problem if I was to actually achieve me desire.

Has anyone else ever stopped to think about this? What do you think now? Would writing as a sole occupation be a good thing so that I could pour all of myself into my creations and have the dedicated time to attend events and work diligently on new books or should I maintain a second position for the ability to keep the pressure off of my writing and keep me in the flow of the rest of the world for future inspiration?