Do You Want to Be a Writer, or Do You Want to Write?

There is a difference. The first is an ambition, the latter a disease.
In the long run, it doesn’t much matter what your motivation is. Motivation is motivation; it’s just a matter of how strong it is. People who want to be writers are generally charmed by the idea of being famous, or working from home, or imagining Jolie and Pitt being cast in the big screen versions of their books. I encountered a lot of them in my college fiction courses. A few are writers now. Most of them, however, went on to become doctors, lawyers, or Indian chiefs, once they discovered how hard writing was. And that was before they learned how lousy it pays.
People who want to write, however, have it a lot harder. Doing something else is a much more difficult option. I know, because I did something else for a long time, and spent most of that time wishing I had more time for writing, despite the fact that (as of this writing) I have yet to earn as much in seven years of publication (note that I am not including time spent before publication) as I earned in my first year as a banker. And first year bankers didn’t earn any more than teachers back in 1983.
If you want to be a writer, but aren’t yet afflicted with the disease of wanting to write, my advice is to run, now, as fast as you can, for the hills. Find something else to do before it’s too late. Bricklaying. Pest extermination. Sewer work. Anything, just as long as it pays. If you can’t help yourself and still want to write, my advice is the same. Just make sure you have the extra energy to get up every morning to write at the crack of dawn, or spend every free minute after dinner at your computer instead of watching Jersey Shore with your spouse.
And that your spouse doesn’t mind.
                                                                   
                                                                          xoxo,Es Sanchez