Turning a hobby into a job - the pipe dream

A few weeks ago I let slip to a few friends of mine that I’ve been playing around with YoYo Games’ fantastic 2D game-making software creatively named Game Maker Studio. I also mentioned the pipe dream of turning my newborn hobby into an actual job. I’ve only been using this program for a few months at this point, so realistically it would take years for me to get the experience and knowledge to actually start making money from it; hence the term “pipe dream”. One of my friends was quite dismissive of this pipe dream, so I asked him “wouldn’t anyone love to turn their hobby into a job?” He replied words to the effect of “no, get a real a job.”

This seems kind of soulless to me. The conversation swiftly turned to other matters, but I was really hoping that this friend would ask me something like “how many people do you know who’ve successfully turned a hobby into a job?” because I already had an answer prepared: “Every single actor, writer, musician, and sportsperson that you’ve ever heard of.”

That conversation is never going to happen now, but what’s the point of having an online blog if you can’t indulge in the things that you never got to say in real life?

Actor – how many different things does this cover? Not many admittedly; screen, stage, and voice is all I can think of off the top of my head, but each of these categories are broad enough as they are. Everyone who’s ever appeared in Star Wars, MCU, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Star Trek, and all of the things that can’t be described as Sci-fi or Fantasy. Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Patrick Stewart, Dame Judi Dench all turned their silly little theatre hobby into fucking knighthoods. Even voice actors; everyone who has a starring role on The Simpsons turned their hobby into a job (although appearing on The Simpsons isn’t the honour it used to be).

Writer – this one a bit difficult because I can’t give examples of people for every category of writing. “You’re a writer? So do you write novels, short stories, screenplays, stage plays, radio plays, television, essays, historical accounts, book reviews, film reviews, play reviews, game reviews, TV reviews, music reviews, sports reviews, car reviews, food reviews, or long-form critiques of any of things I’ve already mentioned? Any one of these things some can start out as a hobby in the bedroom at the age of 8 and grow their craft to the point of making money from it.

Musici-- actually, I’m not going to list every musical instrument and sport I can think of because I think I’ve made my point with the writing section; there are lots of ways you can be a “writer”, a “musician” or “singer”, or a “sportsperson”. Turning a hobby into a job is not some niche thing where there are very few entry points.

Most of the people who can describe themselves as one of the things above most likely have a “real job” on top of it, but when pressed with the question “what do you do?” they would not answer with “oh, I’m a waiter who enjoys local theatre on the side”. No, they would respond with “I’m a local footballer”, or “I write articles for a magazine”, or “I play the drums for my local band”; only to then add something like “I also work as an office temp to keep myself afloat”.

Or at least, that’s what I wish people would say. Whenever I see someone on a quiz show or something asked “so, what do you do?” they’ll always give some boring generic answer for their job, but then go on to describe their spare time as them doing some fascinating hobby. I don’t care what shitty office job you have for a main source of income. What makes a person interesting is the hobbies and interests they have.

Of course, there are easier ways to make your favourite hobby or interest a main source of income. It all depends on what your interest is. If, for example, you have real interest in studying history: great, go to university and turn that interest into a career. But a more creative interest? Well, you can get advice, but talent in writing, or acting, or music can’t really be taught. Or at least I don’t believe it can. You get better at your favourite hobby by being shit at it to start with, but just doing it for the sake of doing it, for the sake of fun. I started writing reviews of video games because I’m an opinionated fucker and I wanted to put my opinions into words. I’d hardly argue I’m good at it though and as of writing this article I've had literally no-one read them; I'm still doing it though, because it's fun.

People would look at a potential hobby and think “what’s the point I’m never going make any money off of it”, but that’s not the point. Making money from your hobby is probably never going to happen, but that’s why it’s a hobby. It’s something you do for the sake of enjoying doing it, and making money from it just a pipe dream. But as Ian, or Patrick, or Judi would tell you, some pipe dreams do come true.