In Which I Have an Existential Crisis About Spreadsheets

Or, ‘What’s Changing at Working Writer Ink’

I love making spreadsheets, and I love minding the administrative side of my author business. I know… weird for a writer, huh?

But that doesn’t mean I love talking about it. I just want to sit down and do, not talk. In trying to make Working Writer Ink supplement my writing income, I followed a lot of advice on turning it into a full-fledged business. Advice that’s great… for someone for whom it’s the right fit (business speak: “aligned”).

Half-Finished Everything, Including Me

It involved me spending a lot of time in the background building and re-building websites, half-writing blog articles, half-filming Instagram reels, and half-learning how to convert my tools into Notion because it seemed like a smart financial move.

All those things remained half done because, after three years of focusing all my energy into Working Writer Ink at the expense of my own writing (“to pay the rent”), I discovered I was exhausted on a daily basis, not covering rent, and – most importantly – not writing.

What Happens When a Mythologist Ignores Her Own Plotline

In March, I ended up in hospital with chest pains, dizziness, and migraines. After several tests and a cranial CT (actually affordable, thanks to the Irish health system), doctors concluded it was all caused by stress, burnout, and perimenopause.

I’ve run Working Writer Ink for a total of five years. It’s successful in that it covers its own costs and even pays me once in a while. But considering that I’ve sacrificed my own writing—my raison d’être—without ever managing rent (much less groceries, utilities, health insurance, and student loans)… is it worth it?

Does It Pay Rent? No. Does It Cost Joy? Yes.

Let me be clear:

Working Writer Ink is not closing.

It’s just going back to what it used to be: me, joyfully making writerly spreadsheets because I need them or because I want to see what I can make them do. Then I polish them up and share them. That was the joy—not blog posts and Instagram reels.

In short, everything will still look the same to you, dear writer. I’ll just be a lot less stressed in the background.

But this is a post about pivoting (again: business speak), not giving up. So what am I doing instead?

Teaching, Mythology, and Trusting the Work

For a long time, I’ve wanted to go back to teaching. And to talking about craft. Specifically, craft and mythology. (I mean, I have a PhD in exactly that—it would be nice to use it.) But I felt trapped in the very business-and-spreadsheets-oriented container of Working Writer Ink.

So I’m returning to Night Sea Press. It started as an imprint for my fiction, but now it can contain everything else I do around craft: talking about mythology in writing, teaching, even story consulting. So far, I know that will take the form of three courses and, eventually, a consulting service. But instead of feeling pressured to do what I think will pay rent, I’m following the example of Secret O.W.L. Society: doing what I love and only what I love—and trusting that will be enough.