In this series of guest posts, I have asked a number of writers and editors to share the price they pay for pursuing their creative passion or what they sacrifice–whether that is money, time or lost opportunities. It might be how they pay the bills that writing doesn’t, or how they juggle working for a living or raising a family with the time it takes to write or edit. The people who have contributed have shared their personal stories in the hope it might help those new to the scene manage their expectations, or help others dealing with similar things realise they aren’t alone. You can read about the inspiration for this series here, and if you want to be part of it please let me know.

Donna Maree Hanson is one of those people who continuously put in to the community, and without whom many of the things we take for granted would not exist. As well as working tirelessly for the Aussie spec fic community, she is also a talented and successful writer who has overcome a number of obstacles to get to where she is–and so is the perfect person to cap off the year for the Paying for Our Passion series .

This is part of Donna’s blog tour celebrating her book Shatterwing being available FREE – check it out! 

What I gave up for writing.

This is a topic true to my heart. I don’t think I can count the dollars I gave up to write in the past. Right now I work full time and write in between. These days, I am an empty nester and my partner is also a writer. Between us we forego a tidy house most of the time in order to write. However, that’s not suffering really. Right now the demands on me are more physical. I have arthritis in the neck and thoracic spine. I’ve also had RSI in the right arm. It doesn’t help that I write in my day job for about half the year. I can’t write as much as I want to anymore. The 10,000 word days are fond memories. These days achieving 5000 words is a rarity and a cause for celebration.

For many years I worked part time, having a writing day once a week. I was more or less productive at this time. Often, though, my writing day was taken up with an aging mother, medical appointments, and teenager stress. My more productive time was on writer retreats—two weeks of blissful immersion in writing. These though are expensive, being smack in the middle of the school holidays and I can’t rely on them anymore to get a good project nutted out.

In my early days, I was obsessed with writing. I wanted to write all the time. I wanted to hone my skills, develop my craft and get lots of words under my belt so I could be published. It meant the world to me. I think that obsession damaged relationships with my then partner and also my children. I tried to balance that now, but then there are other things to come into play.

It wasn’t until I was published that I started working full time. I calculated that I had foregone more income than I’ll ever earn from writing and that insight coincided with my first publication. And since being published, I know I won’t be living off that money any time soon. I may have a number of publications now, but I’m flying below the radar in the number of readers and resulting dollars department. I’m lucky that I have some financial back up if I ever did decide to give up my day job.

Now faced with increasingly bad physical problems, I have to make even harder choices about my writing versus working full time. I have so many stories to write. I have a white board full of titles I know I’ll never ever write. I have to weigh up now whether I need to focus more on my writing than on earning money. I earn good money. I like earning good money. Worse, I like spending money. Working less means no more cons, or shopping trips or freedom to do what I want or travel where I want. It means taking a risk on myself and that writing is what I want to do. It’s scary–let me tell you.

I can’t tell you what I’m going to decide. So now I write when I can, balance the physical pain with the demands of grandchildren, children and the desire to be with them and with friends and sometimes just vegging. Writing for me now is a privilege. Something I can’t take for granted. I have to make every word count, every minute I apply myself count. But I wouldn’t stop doing it. I love writing too much. I don’t know  how I lived before I started writing. I had stories in my head all my life. I need to be creating stories and characters and more. It’s what I need to do to feel like I’m living.

Donna Maree Hanson is a Canberra-based writer of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and under a pseudonym paranormal romance. Her dark fantasy series (which some reviewers have called ‘grim dark’), Dragon Wine, is published by Momentum Books (Pan Macmillan digital imprint).  Book  1: Shatterwing and Book 2: Skywatcher are out now in digital and print on demand. In April 2015, she was awarded the A. Bertram Chandler Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Australian Science Fiction” for her work in running science fiction conventions, publishing and broader SF community contribution. Donna also writes young adult science fiction, with Rayessa and the Space Pirates and Rae and Essa’s Space Adventures out with Escape Publishing. Under her pseudonym, Dani Kristoff, she writes paranormal romance and is published by Harper Impulse and Escape Publishing.

Dragon Wine Book 1:Shatterwing ebook is free during December and early January 2016.