A nice piece in Atlantic Unbound on the writing life: So You Want to Be a Writer. Currently available for free, but probably slipping behind the subscriber wall shortly, so skim it while you can...

The only piece of advice I'd add: don't tke a gig that will freely suck all your time in addition to your writing career. Stick to a 9 to 5. My freelancing design work has been the biggest pain in the butt because it staunchly refuses to stick to a fixed schedule. A bunch of this is my own lack of self-discipline (something I'm working furiously to fix) but still – one only imagines what my creative output might have resembled over the last couple of years if I'd only worked at Starbucks instead.