This feels a little click bait-ish. The problem wasn't covering his bills or writing. The problem was as he got more successful, he didn't optimized for just

This feels a little click bait-ish. The problem wasn't covering his bills or writing. The problem was as he got more successful, he didn't optimized for just writing, he optimized for a lifestyle. And when the income didn't sustain that new lifestyle (bigger city, fine dinners, etc etc), he created another "distraction" away from his original goal to cover that. Wants create needs.