A lot of the writing I’ve done in the past few days hasn’t really been, uh, writing. Sure I’ve written the occasional query letter, I write dozens of e-mails per day, I’ve been making notes for projects that are in the works, and I write a daily journal.

But while a lot of it is, technically, work, none of it is actual place-your-butt-in-the-chair writing.

The writing life, unfortunately, isn’t all that romantic. When most full-timers think of quitting their jobs and working from home, they focus on the “from home” part, but they forget the work. When they think about dumping those corporate suits and walking around the house in their pajamas all day, they forget that more often than not, they’ll be sitting in those pajamas in front of a computer screen for hours on end. When wannabe freelancers talk about the freedom of working on their own clock, they forget that the only freedom they’re awarded is in choosing which 18 hours of the 24 they’d like to work. Writers who love the idea of working on their own, don’t realize how isolating the lifestyle can be.

I’ve encountered those family members and roommates who think it’s okay to ask the cable guy to come at 10 in the morning to fix something, because, you know, I work from home, and I have all the time in the world to take care of such annoyances. That despite the fact that anyone who’s known me for more than seven minutes knows that I work all night and sleep through the day, only get up during days when I have appointments and interviews (read: have to leave the house), and oh, actually do have to work to make a living. There’s a reason I call myself a journalist. No, really.

Fortunately, I’m good at dealing with such issues, so I haven’t really had much of them. The cable guy rings the bell, is asked to come back at said family member’s day off, and the message is made clear. No more cable guys show up at 10 in the morning.

When most freelancers start their careers as at-home workers, their biggest problem and their biggest failure is to set boundaries: for others and for themselves.

Writing is very much a job. A sometimes frustrating, sometimes demanding, sometimes unstable job.

The only difference is, it’s a job you love.