We hear it all the time. To be a writer, you need to be persistent. Indeed, it’s the lifeblood of any creative pursuit, especially in a business as tough as this. But the line between admirable determination and self-destructive stubbornness is razor-thin, and I've spent years trying to recognise it.
Four years into my publishing journey, I think I’m learning the lesson – putting my stubborn streak to work in a productive way for once. It hasn’t always served me well. Loyalty, that other face of persistence, has often kept me in jobs, relationships, and commitments that have ranged from the time-sapping to the downright destructive. But how do you know when you’re being persistent and when stubbornness has taken the wheel?
I wrestled with this dilemma this year when I hit what I called my ‘peak crap’ moment with my holiday let business. When you’re a freelancer, not having all your eggs in one basket is a sensible strategy, and so, back in 2017, I put my savings into a cottage back home in Wales.
I kept the business afloat during the pandemic, slipping though the net of every support grant offered, and my persistence paid off – the business thrived, attracting visitors from all over the country and from overseas, some returning three or four years in a row. The reviews were glowing and I loved seeing pictures of happy dogs enjoying their holidays. Ty Hiraeth was twice given a high four-star grading from Visit Wales and was highly commended in the Swansea Bay Tourism Awards.
And yet this year, something changed.
My smile was still a mile wide when reading the five-star reviews – even wider seeing a snap of one of our canine guests, but the balance had tipped. It was no longer enough to make up for the bone-numbing bureaucracy, the avalanche of new legislation that felt designed to force people out of the business, and the creeping fear that there would be more to come.
I closed the business last week and while I cried a river doing it, I found an answer to my question. You quit when there’s no longer any joy left.
Thankfully, I have plentiful supply when it comes to my writing.