?? career as a writer ??

Published by bryan | Filed under Don Answers your ???s

hi don-
now i’ve only read blue like jazz, so this question may be answered in another book or it may even be answered somewhere on this site..but i figured id ask anyway…

in your ‘money’ chapter, you talk about how you felt lazy because you were a writer and you felt writers didnt really work…this part got me especially excited because in the week or so before i read your book, i was walking around depressed for the exact same reason. now im sure there are many people who feel that, and lord knows i dont consider myself a ‘writer’ as a profession yet..but ive been trying very hard to force myself into a “respectable” profession where i would make alot of money, even tho i hate it and all i want to do is write…i even asked several people if i was lazy…they said no but i did need to DO something. anyway-heres where i was dissapointed. and maybe it was a personal answer..but you never said what brought you to realize that what your supposed to do is write. and maybe you still struggle with it or something, but if you did find peace about it..how did you know? what made you think, okay now this IS what i am supposed to be doing..and not feel bad about not being a doctor or something rich….

i know you did go on to say that the money problem turned out okay because you started tithing so i guess that writer thing wasnt really the point of the chapter..but i still would like to know how you made the decision to do this as your living. thanks for your time…and you are an inspirational writer, by the way.

Rebekah

Rebekah,

Writing is a very tough career choice, and most writers do not do well financially. I think that is an important thing to remember. There just isn’t a great deal of money to be had in writing books. Therefore, money can never be a determiner for whether or not it is what you should be doing. In order to determine whether God has called me to do something, i ask myself a couple questions: 1. Do I love doing this thing….2. Is it okay with God? and 3. Do i feel right doing it (by that I mean does it feel okay with God) and that’s about it. Sometimes, like with writing, the system is such that you have to claw it out for many years before you get to do it for a living. But if it is what you want, and if you feel like God is okay with it,  then claw it out. It’s a great life to be able to create books and articles. All the best to you…

Don