Whether writing is work depends on how you define "writing" and "work" (but not, I think, on how you define "is," apologies to a recent president), I guess. One certainly needs to work at writing, as well as play it--in terms of improvisation and invention. So there's that. And if you get paid for writing, that might make writing, officially, work. But are writers laborers? As a writer in many venues, I've worked hard, but as a former laborer, I do have, in the back of my mind, a voice that whispers, "Writing really isn't work." Opinions?

Writing really isn't work. I would love to discuss it at length but in addition to work I have three papers to write in the next nine days.

Not to mention read 300 pages, take one midterm and one final exam and give a Powerpoint presentation.

Writing is hard work of a sort but in macroeconomic terms it is largely irrelevant so I would be reluctant to describe it as labor.

Maybe it's similar to the exertions of someone who tries to excel at sport. A person expels much energy, maybe extreme amounts, and a few might achieve something extraordinary; but there is also something rarefied or even frivolous about it.

That requires no apology. No reason to go about pofaced--a little frivolity can be a tonic in a tough world.

Great responses. I enjoyed them immensely, and they generally reflect my own views, even as I keep scribbling. ;-)

It is certainly work, and, while not always laborious, labor as well.