I have very mixed feelings about people proudly telling the story of how they wrote their novel by getting up 3 hrs early every day before their shitty job for a year, or during the commute every morning, or every evening once the kids were asleep. It normalises hellish overwork.

Good for you if you worked a full time job & managed to find the time & emotional energy & the result wasn't shitty. You're very, very lucky. Most people who attempt the same will either work themselves into cataclysmic burnout, or feel intense guilt for not doing so.

Survivorship bias is a thing. I know stories of writing your bestseller between split shifts at your minimum wage bar job are meant to be inspirational, but they sanctify dangerous crunch & the abandonment of basic self-care while promising unrealistic outcomes.

If I sound a bit emotive, that's because I worked myself into a breakdown chasing the same dream. It's a shitty, unhealthy fantasy. If you want to help novice authors, push for better working conditions, more grants, & more access to education for low wage writers.

To be completely honest, if someone had tried to sit me down & 'moderate my expectations' by telling me how hard writing can be, I would have smiled & nodded while internally telling them to fuck off. But nothing has been more destructive to my writing career than crunch worship.

It's hard to let go of when you feel like writing a bestseller might be your only escape from the crap job, endless expensive rentals, the lack of meaning & the total void of self worth in your life. That's how I felt, anyway, & I bet many can relate to a greater or lesser extent

The thing is, writing a book isn't a reliable route for riches, acclaim or self-worth. & actually, as long as you can feed yourself, the last one is what matters. No amount of book sales or good reviews appear to repair someone's damaged self-image, as far as I can tell.

Writing can give you so much! A lot of which might not be what you expect. If you can give yourself to it in a curious, grateful way, holding it lightly, it can reward in the moment, delight you, & transform your life. Genuinely. Like nothing else.

My 1st book sold fuck all. But it brought my grandfather joy on his deathbed. It was how I met my wife - & therefore a necessary condition for my daughter's existing. It became the show that took me to Edinburgh, Australia & China. It took me on a journey.

But also: I've had so much fun writing stuff just for me. I remember the writing retreats I used to go on with friends, & the group writing sessions I'd do with friends or back at CWS at uni as some of my high points of writing.

People imagine writing will help cure the things that feel wrong in their life. But if you attempt the equivalent of working 2 full-time jobs for 18 months, you are much, much more likely to make yourself deeply ill.

That's what it did to me. I didn't get a novel out of it, either. Most people don't, but you don't hear their stories because the people with the platform are the bestselling authors. They're the planes that made it back.

Gentle, nourishing practice based on *your* needs, not on trying to please a putative future public, is what will sustain you in the long run. It doesn't matter if you never write again. But if you make yourself miserable & ill, if you miss how great you already are, that matters