It is Really Work?

Yes, writing is really work.

A selfie of the author at work.

There are some who’ve told me to get a real job. Sometimes not in so many words. Other times, rather directly.

But writing is really work. So are the rest of the creative arts.

Why don’t people think it’s work? Because society has come to look at the arts and artistic pursuits as a hobby. These are things you do in your spare time — not for your vocation.

However — throughout human history — artist has been a vocation. Maybe we’ve lost the name of the artist when it comes to historic statuary and other works — but they were still made by a practicing creative.

Yet somehow, over time, more and more the creatives have been shunted to one side. What we do is not seen as the same value as doctors, for example.

Truthfully — it’s not. The work a doctor does is very different from what a writer, painter, singer, or other creative does. But in what way is it of less value? Artists can save lives, too.

That song that inspires you to turn a corner. The painting with such color and life that you choose not to commit suicide. A poem with such depth that you determine to start a new life path.

Someone sang that song, painted that painting, and wrote that poem. Yes, it was real work that made that…