Being a writer—like being a painter, teacher, or librarian—is the sort of job that sounds great in theory, but in practice is often burdened by all sorts of (externally illegible) downsides.
Ain't that the sad truth. I'm both a PhD candidate and a writer so I understand the pull of 'vocational awe' at the same time as my reality is in the trenches each day, wrestling with words on paper. I think creative practitioners (writers, musicians, artists etc) really understand this. (In fact, we have similar fantastical notions of things like parenting which the uninitiated imagine as glorious and fulfillling. Of course, parenting has moments like that, but there are also countless nappies to change, spills to clean, and a literally endless amount of laundry to do.)
For the last few years, accepting the reality that I'm highly unlikley to make a full-time income off writing, I've pursued finding jobs where I get to read and write in whatever capacity, or jobs which I don't have to take home with me so I can use my after-work hours for creating. So, even if I don't find an academic job after the PhD, I'll still feel good taking a job that pays the bills and allows me to create outside work time.
Getting past the sense of what (for instance) a writing job needs to look like opens up a lot more doors, in part because of what you described. It can also help you make things more sustainable, because the idealized version (however realistic that version is in real life) is no longer keeping you from paying the bills, and it doesn't get in the way of whatever enjoyment you can glean from the work (and process) itself (which is tougher to glean when you're struggling financially).
Ain't that the sad truth. I'm both a PhD candidate and a writer so I understand the pull of 'vocational awe' at the same time as my reality is in the trenches each day, wrestling with words on paper. I think creative practitioners (writers, musicians, artists etc) really understand this. (In fact, we have similar fantastical notions of things like parenting which the uninitiated imagine as glorious and fulfillling. Of course, parenting has moments like that, but there are also countless nappies to change, spills to clean, and a literally endless amount of laundry to do.)
For the last few years, accepting the reality that I'm highly unlikley to make a full-time income off writing, I've pursued finding jobs where I get to read and write in whatever capacity, or jobs which I don't have to take home with me so I can use my after-work hours for creating. So, even if I don't find an academic job after the PhD, I'll still feel good taking a job that pays the bills and allows me to create outside work time.
Getting past the sense of what (for instance) a writing job needs to look like opens up a lot more doors, in part because of what you described. It can also help you make things more sustainable, because the idealized version (however realistic that version is in real life) is no longer keeping you from paying the bills, and it doesn't get in the way of whatever enjoyment you can glean from the work (and process) itself (which is tougher to glean when you're struggling financially).