Various posts on the hard life of a full-time writer have been floating around (these are courtesy magicnoire, I believe):
Alison Kent has found a day job that seems to be ideal for a writer, although I think the boredom would drive me insane.
Tamara Siler Jones warns against taking a day job that involves writing because it could kill a writer’s desire to keep writing when they get home. That’s a good thing to figure out for yourself – some of us are perfectly happy to write all day. Most writing day jobs I know of (I’ve tried two so far, reporter and technical writer) mostly involve other activities than writing. (There’s a reason it’s called reporting, frex.)
I admit to being perplexed at some of these posts – not the ones above, but the topic does crop up from time to time – because they often seem to carry the message “It’s not easy! It’s not easy! It’s not easy!” and I am surprised that that message needs to be given out so many times and so stridently. I am surprised that so many people think having a full-time career as a fiction writer is easy. Maybe it’s because I didn’t start writing until I was in my mid-20s and immediately fell in with a good online group, so I never had that attitude myself. (I don’t expect to ever write fiction full-time, though I’ll jump at the chance if I get it – less time spent doing other writing = more time doing fiction.)