To Book It or Zine It?

As a stay-at-home mama-writer, I struggle with an ongoing conflict between two parties in my head: the "Write for Joy" party and the "Write to Earn" party. "Write for Joy" argues that I should put aside my concerns for contributing to our family's finances, so I can enjoy the act of writing since it brings me such happiness. But "Write to Earn" always counters by making me feel guilty that my writing efforts should be done with a main goal of earning money, otherwise I should be spending my time doing something else that could help support us, like teaching online like I used to for community colleges.


My wonderful husband is on the "Write for Joy" team, and I can't thank him enough for all of his support and encouragement. But after two grad degrees (one of which my husband paid for my education), I feel like I should be earning an income. Since I began writing full-time two years ago, my writing to date has brought in only a small amount of income. As I try to find a balance between the two arguing parties, I question what market I should be writing for.


The advice I've read and received almost always falls into the category of magazines. A writer who is just starting out will have better luck, more success with the magazine industry. Once you've established yourself as a published author, then you have a better chance of breaking into the book industry.


This advice makes sense to me, and I've been writing articles for magazines. But for almost every article or story I write, I find myself in the midst of writing it with a hidden, wishful intention of turning it into a book. I dream of taking off with it and developing the small story plot into a major plot with minor plots embedded inside. I long to develop the characters without a word restriction of 500 words per story. While writing is my passion, books are what fuel the fire.


If I decide to take the story idea and fashion it into a book, then am I hurting my progress as a published author that can help earn some income for our family? As a writer-mama with only 1-3 hours per day to write, a book will take me a lot longer to finish than a magazine article. Perhaps if I devoted my limited time to magazine articles alone, I could get more projects published and earn money in small amounts.


To date, the discussion between "Write for Joy" and "Write to Earn" is still going on in my mind. When the team cheering for happy writing time wins I work on my book manuscripts. But when the pressure returns to publish and earn money I turn towards the magazine manuscripts.


Do other writer-mamas struggle with this same uncertainty? I'd love to know how other writer-mamas carve out their path. How do you decide what goals to strive for?