Somebody on Twitter asked this question today:
I have wrestled with this question at intervals. I usually think about it for a short while, but then I remember that I have a finite amount of time left on the planet and I need to create something that is definably mine before I go.
I have worked in I.T. for 42 years, and I do not believe that I was able to “move the needle” on most of the projects that I participated in, mainly because I am not good at persuasion. I have reached the point where my attempts to be creative within the context of the I.T. Delivery projects that I work on are usually unsuccessful, because the I.T. industry has Peter Pan syndrome and refuses to mature to become a structured and highly professional engineering discipline.
Writing is therefore my main creative outlet. I have no children, so I cannot point to grown adults and their children and say “I helped to raise them” (although I was a step-parent for 8 years, and I think I did OK, although my ex and I disagreed a lot about parenting, but then I discovered that as a step-parent, you are always #2 in the decision pecking order, because I am not a biological parent).
I do not have a business empire. I have helped both my ex and my current wife to run side businesses, but I came to the conclusion about 5 years ago that I was never going to actually obtain the pleasure and sense of achievement from helping others that I would achieve by working on my own writing activities. By the time I came to that conclusion, I had already started drafting and researching both non-fiction and fiction projects. I have gradually become more structured and serious about this over the last 3-4 years, to the point where the only impediment to my becoming a full-time writer is my day job.
Fortunately, I should be able to retire from the day job next year, and at that point there is no reason why I cannot move into high gear on writing both fiction and non-fiction books. I have not discovered any other activity that I am sufficiently gifted at to make the effort worthwhile. I have always been a dabbler, which is generally frowned upon by many people, because there is this idea that one should have a singular focus on a small number of activities that you work on to become very good at. This requires brain wiring that I do not possess. My mental processes do not lend themselves to high-focus on a single aim. So writing, with its need to range far and wide across human experience, and summarize it and distill it in a uniquely personal way, has become my way for me to express my own personal creativity. I have other creative outlets, but I have determined that trying to express myself via those outlets will, for me, always be a noble struggle.
Paul Mellon, the art collector and horse racing owner, actually commented about his life and interests in a very thought-provoking way a few years ago:
“I have been an amateur in every phase of my life; an amateur poet, an amateur scholar, an amateur horseman, an amateur farmer, an amateur soldier, an amateur connoisseur of art, an amateur publisher, and an amateur museum executive. The root of the word “amateur” is the Latin word for love, and I can honestly say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the roles I have played.” —Paul Mellon from his autobiography Reflections in a Silver Spoon.
As long as I love to do it, I will write. It has taken me a long time to work out that this is how I can best be creative, and since i am now in my mid-60s, I need to make the best use of the time that I have left. Covid-19 and its medical effects have been a wake-up call for me in 2021, I know now that I have to make the best use of my time. So, given the choice between worthy but boring activities, and writing, I will tend to prioritize writing.
There are limits to that. One cannot ignore domestic and organization fundamentals like hygiene, cooking, shopping, paying taxes etc. And the damn day job. But I am becoming more conscious of how I am spending my time, and given the choice between Dull Stuff and writing, Writing is likely to win.