Is Your Lifestyle Helping Your Writing?

By: Ebonye Gussine Wilkins

What kind of writer are you? Do you have a day job that has nothing at all to do with your writing? Do you work in an industry that is scientific, but you prefer to write creatively? Do you work with numbers but still possess a love of words?

Or are you the kind of writer that dedicates your entire life and time to writing? Have you quit your job to pursue writing full time? Do you love the focus you get when you are always working with words?

According to a Nobel Laureate, you may be working against yourself if you fall into the latter group. The Guardian wrote an article about that here.

I think I understand where he is coming from. When you work in a field outside of writing, you have the opportunity to interact with different kinds of people, you can gain different perspectives, and you have give your brain a break from the writing. When you take time away from a particular task, you give your mind time to process information and reorganize it in a way that will better help you later.

If you only interact with writers professionally, then you are only speaking with people who have the same general goals as you do. How do you create diverse characters if you only speak with one kind of person? How do you design plots if you are never put in new situations? How do you learn to deal with a variety of problems if you are not exposed to them?

I know this post has more questions than answers, but it is food for thought.

Do you think that your writing is suffering from your lifestyle? If so, how? 
Do you think that your varied lifestyle positively contributes to your writing? 
Let us know about them in the comments.