But you don’t ‘have to do’ anything, other than breathe and a few other rudimentary things. Writing and teaching writing is how I make my living, and as I said, I enjoy it, mostly. But the romanticised version of it I encounter on here, usually on threads about fantasy careers, bears zero resemblance to any actual writer’s reality, however successful. It’s like imagining nurses as kind-faced angels floating about smilingly holding hands with patients or vets as only ever bursting into the waiting room holding a miraculously-recovered cute pet.
The other thing about writing is that, unlike some other fantasy careers, it requires no qualifications, training, equipment etc to start writing. Anyone can grab ten minutes a day with a pen and notebook, or use the Notes facility on their phone. You can plan a novel on the bus, in a dull meeting, or on the school run. If it’s something you want to do, there’s literally nothing stopping you.