Is My Writing a Hobby Or a Career?

"So it's like a hobby?" Someone recently asked about my writing. No, I wanted to say. But yes, kind of. I've stumbled my way through this conversation many times before. Yes, I have a full-time job that isn't related to my writing; yes, I still think of myself as a writer. Is it a hobby, a side hustle, a passion project? It's all of those things and somehow none of them.

Yet when someone refers to writing as my hobby, I flinch, despite knowing the value of hobbies, or perhaps because it feels so unlike my actual hobbies, like baking. I know how often creative work or work by disabled people, people who are parenting or caregiving, or people with other responsibilities gets relegated to this "hobby" categorization, regardless of how people classify it themselves. Maybe it is a hobby. Or maybe it's work someone cares about that doesn't fit a forty-hours-a-week model.