How to fit hobby/obsessions into working life?

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If you're lucky you have a hobby or obsession that translates well to a career. But if not, you may be like me - trying to figure out how to balance your obsession with a less-than-obsession-worthy day job. In my case, my obsession (writing) could theoretically be lucrative, but it requires a lot of work to get to that point. I've found 3 options for navigating this balance, but I'd like to hear your thoughts about the merits of choosing one route or another. I've included examples that relate to my hobby of writing:

1) Adapt your obsession into something marketable. Pros: you get paid to do something that uses your skills/interests, and you're motivated to make it a career. Cons: it turns something fun into work and at the end of the day your hobby might not relax you any more; you might not enjoy the work and feel bad because you think you should. eg. A writer who writes press releases or technical manuals.

2) Find part-time work that pays the bills but leaves plenty of time to build your true hobby, potentially to the point where you become quite successful, potentially to the point where you become quite broke and burnt out. Pros: you have lots of time to work on what you love, and have some flexibility finding jobs that might be fun or offer fringe benefits (staff discounts, exposure to concerts, etc) during hours that work well for your hobby schedule and with minimal responsibility to stress you out. Cons: you might have to work a lot of hours to pay the bills on a (usually) lower hourly wage, you don't always get benefits, it's more difficult to afford classes, supplies, or travel opportunities that might help you develop your hobby into something marketable. eg. A writer who works on a novel during the day then works as a theatre usher or bookstore clerk some evenings and weekends.

3) Find a full-time job that is vastly different from your hobby but pays well. Pros: Adds variety to your day so you're eager to work on your hobby after work; gives exposure to different worlds/people that might inspire your hobby or help understand how to market it to the public; may give you other skills to help turn your hobby into a business (eg sales, marketing, web development, bookkeeping); good pay and benefits allow you to focus on the "art" of your hobby rather than trying to turn what you love into what you think will sell; regular schedule (usually days) and good pay allow you to take or teach classes, join local groups, or attend festivals/conferences to improve your hobby; career-track job may sound prestigious to peers/family; more money for travel (when you actually get vacation) Cons: day job may make you too tired to work on your hobby at the end of the day; workplace and politics can be demoralizing or depressing, minimal free time to work on hobby and minimal support from coworkers; stress; more money may make you careless with your spending - you might use shopping as a way to cheer yourself up; job might actually seem less prestigious to peers/family, if you're working as a secretary or other low-level full-time position to limit responsibility ("I work as a secretary but I'm REALLY an interior designer at heart"). e.g. A writer works as a secretary or carpenter or teacher or whatever, and writes every morning at 5 a.m.

If you have your own hobby that you try to fit into life, which strategy/ies have you used or do you plan to use? Which one do you recommend to others? What do you do to fit your hobby/obsession into your everyday life?

I will take what is behind door number three.

I write, and until there is a cure...

A step farther, find something that pays well, money cures many things, and having to think about it wastes some good energy.

It is a good way to pick up material. Everything I think up is believeable, but reality is full of suprises.

There is nothing not related to writing. It is not a field that gets you free of the world, for good writers, those who make money, understand every step of publishing and marketing, the demographics of book stores, and how the money is split between printer, publisher, retailers, and what two books yours will fit between on the shelf, how much they sell for, volume of sales, and if one publisher dominates that field and has threee writers working that book buyer demographic.

Part of it is finding what needs to be written. News has to be fresh, some things are timeless.

Being rich and having a large desk in a quite study has never produced great writers. It is exploring the conflicts of life, the dynamic of opposites. Getting out in the world is needed to be an observer.

I also find writing comes when it will, no fixed time for me. A three part cycle, gather, digest, then output. Sometimes I write just to see where it goes. Three pages on a fragment of a story idea. Fragments get larger. Still fitting together a book, takes more, many stories tied together in a seamless whole.

"Art" is part, something to develop without thought of sales. Sales are part. Before spending five years on a book, easy to do, check the market for that type of story. A slight shift may make it sellable.

Research, do not put a story in the 1930's till you know who was president, what the issues of the time were, and have studied the fashons of several classes. It is a time machine. Read old news papers from the period, for 1970 people did not live in 1930. Jane Austin wrote in the high speach of the upper class, Dickens wrote about many classes, they all think and speak their own way.

Readers are looking for something they identify with, so if you have a narrow world, that will show.

No matter what, there is a lot of bad writing to get out of the way, and some exercize needed. When I started a page was large, When I could get ten pages a day I thought I was great, then learned to edit that to two.

Chapters are each a stand alone short story, that fits with all other chapters. A book takes three to five hundred pages of head space, it does not just happen. Change a characters name and three rewrites later the old name still crops up.

I would say seek work in related fields, secretary for a printing company, or prepress, publisher, or something related to what you write about.

After the book I wanted pictures, and a year later almost understand that process. Nothing just happens.

I write in bursts, some last for weeks. Sometimes nothing, but I am gathering for the next burst. Writer be damed, there is also living. A book can use up 4,000 to 6,000 hours. two, three years. Prolific writers might get one a year, some a few in a lifetime, some one.

For more, it is your age, education, background, and personality. What is your subject?

www.gamersaloon.com

Not much of a career but if you are very good you can make some money (I don't play for money though)

I made my hobby (programming) into a career and then specialized my hobby to artificial intelligence.

So I get somehow the benefits of both variants. I get some training in everyday programming skills all the time, even if part of the work isn't making me too happy (boring projects, dumb customers). But it's still better than any part time job, where you in general may have more trouble with customers and are less motivated to cope with it.
So in any case you should do something that you can enjoy at list a tiny little bit. Don't look for a job at a fuel station counter or something on that line. It pays bad and you get only frustration out of it.

I have no idea, but can commiserate. My obsession is music, so I've been trying to make it into my career. However, I don't have the right personality for the music business-- I'm not competitive at all. People say 'do what you love', but I can't figure out if music is more like my significant other than my career (music is my boyfriend! ) My other main interest is writing, but I have no desire to be a pro writer, since it's such an isolating job and I like to be with people when I work. So yeah...I haven't figured it out yet.

Hello Scheherazade

I've been enjoying the interviews with writers series.

Google : Don-Swaim Interviews

Of course I had to listen to every one. I was struck by how flaky the profession was, with some getting rejection slips for 20+ years though still calling themselves professional writers. They ended up in these interviews because one day they woke up and had a best selling novel.

The other point that shines through these interviews is having a 2nd job - usually one wholly unrelated to writing. This is a wonderful de-stressing tool as it gets you away from thoughts of the writing and settles subconscious creative ideas. The duration between writing being as important as the writing task itself. Also, I think the pressure of performing financially as well as artistically is not an adaptive skill if your artistic vision is too far from marketability.

A visiting artist (painter) who came (to my then art school) remarked his career had suffered serious decline because as he got better and well known, his own perception of style changed, moving his paintings into a realm that baffled his once fans.

But sometimes it goes the other way too. In your case you could write fantastic novels on the side and all the while be paying the bills, with no-one the wiser to what you're working on / experimental style or future potential best seller. Then once ready, you could produce the work.

In my situation I have a full time job from home managing a company and on the side write and illustrate books which I then sell via Lulu and Amazon. It's a good simple plan and at the end of the year I have something more to stick on the shelves around here. Also an easy way to test public reception if that's your thing.

Well what a great question you pose,and one which i have a very common link with.How do you balance work with dreams,or hobbys.I,ve worked as a mechanic/engineer all my life,and as a hobby im a part time musician,and have always wondered what it would be like to turn professional at music.I also like m/cycles,and have also thought about that as a career.
But the balance is i feel a very fine one,because i,ve always felt too much of something you love doing,can turn into a real drag.I rode a m/cycle delivering parcels many years ago,and after 3 months of riding everyday,i,d had enough.
I,ve played in bands for many years doing occasional gigs,and loved it,but wouldnt want to gig everyday,as again it would kill the pleasure.So i think a variety of things can be very fulfilling.Its just figuring out which way to earn enough to live on ,thats the hard bit! A full time job is the way i,ve always done it,but i,m now out of work,and finding i need something more than just a job that pays the bills.So i,m looking at all options at the moment,as i want something creative,interactive,and rewarding,so hopefully i,ll figure it out myself soon,nostro

I'm planning on becoming an editor, as I'm extremely good at editing pieces because of my honesty and excellent writing skills Then I'm going to write my own pieces on the side

I'm on option number 1 and I have to say I like it.

I currently work as a reporter for a broadsheet, which complements my love for words and news. yep, I'm a news junkie and a literature geek, which is what my bosses in journ want their reporters to be. Getting to write news day in/day out hones my writing skills and hopefully, someday, I can branch into doing more literary work.

How I got this job: In college, I was a lit major and was a member of the campus newspaper. I freelanced a bit after graduation so when I applied for a position in a newspaper, I had a pretty ok portfolio.

The bad side: I can't do socializing much (I find it painful) , which is also a big part of my work as I need to develop relationships with independent sources.

However, I've been doing this gig for about 4 yrs now and have learned certain coping mechanisms to get me through the difficult aspects of my job, without which, my life would be in tatters.

When I was younger, I never imagined I'd be anything other than a writer. I made no alternative plans it being a foregone conclusion. No one around me thought I'd do anything else either.

Then came a trauma, a long story I'll omit for brevity. I would never be a writer. I died inside, I call it soul killing because it was. I floundered for several years lacking a backup plan.

Accidentally, I fell into something else, something I didn't know I'd love just as much or more. Drafting patterns. I'd always loved to sew. I was passionately in love. Still am. My writing dream was dead -really. Mourned and turned to dust. I was at peace, reconciled. I'd even forgotten that I was once intended to be a writer.

Again accidentally, I wrote a book. A cathartic exercise really. It took ten years for me to realize I'd become a writer. I was shocked. When I say I became a writer, I mean it was my sole means of support, making a living at it.

Now I blog. Not many make a living at it but I do. I write about drafting mostly, combining the two. I think that if you enjoy writing, you should blog. Committing to posting daily brings rigor, practice and subsequent competence. I'm a much better writer after three years of daily blogging, knowing people actually read it forces one to greater discipline. In my case it was the opposite but a lot of blog writers end up with book deals.

I went for approach 1, I turned my hobby and obsession into my job. It is true that I always feel that I can handle more though, it is never really satisfying. The only thing that is really satisfying are personal projects... So in a way it doesn't completely replace the original obsession, but of all options, it is the best one out there...
Also, on the longer term, I believe it is certainly the way to go. Ultimately, I would just like to be able to work on personal projects all the time, and basically be my own boss. The only way I would be able to achieve that is to advance in my career and start my own company at some point.

I also noticed, or at least thats what I experience, is that I have a much easier time on advancing my career than others, exactly because of this obsession thing. I easily beat competitors, not necessarily because I am more skilled, but primarily because I am so dedicated to it and invest huge amounts of time. It seems to be the way to go for me, invest time in that what you are best at, as that will repay your investment much faster than other things. Most efficient combination...