Update

Here is what is happening:
The writing business keeps growing. And growing and growing. In fact, since April I haven’t had a moment where I didn’t have an essay due for some publication or another. It’s getting rather exciting!

And here is what I must do:
Keep saying yes, keep saving, keep checking in and maintaining balance. I have decided to be laid off this winter (weird, I know, but I actually get a choice). That means no health insurance but my employer will indeed file for unemployment for me. I have six more weeks of work before all of this goes into affect.

Here is what else I must do before then, bare minimum, for my creative writing:
Submit to the Narrative U30 competition (and revise my story for it). Apply for the Top Secret Fellowship and the NC Arts Fellowship. Call the NC Tourism dep’t.

Here is what I must do when I get laid off:
Divide my time 50/50 between the arts writing and the creative writing. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. If I let myself tip this scale too early on in my career, I’ll start a bad habit of putting the money work first. If I can go 50/50, eventually the creative work will pay, too. Period.