“I do enjoy writing, but that doesn’t mean I would do it for free.”
-Random person in a Facebook group
The quote above almost killed me. Dripping in irony. Hilarious, yet deeply problematic.
That guy sounds like many bloggers today. “I like writing, but when is the money coming?!”
News flash: If you struggle to make yourself do anything for free, then you don’t enjoy it. Okay?
If you wouldn’t write for free, then writing isn’t for you.
Writing Is Its Own Reward
I both love and hate what Medium has done for the internet. They made it possible for die hard writers to make a few dollars online. That’s a good thing. They’ve also opened the floodgates for imposters who “enjoy writing” to come make a few bucks, too. That’s a bad thing.
Why? Because Medium is full of imposter writers.
The saving grace, however, is that the imposter writers who do not enjoy writing will always quit. It’s like getting someone who hates running to continually run 3 miles per day.
Some might come to enjoy it, but most will quit after day 4.
And most do. That doesn’t stop them, though, from berating blogging in Facebook groups and stealing hope away from those of us who do enjoy writing that maybe blogging is a good way to make a name for ourselves.
If You Don’t Enjoy Writing, Then Quit
Your time would be better spent elsewhere. Maybe you like building stuff with your hands. Maybe you enjoy carpentry. I don’t know, but if you don’t enjoy writing, you need to stop doing it right now.
You owe it to yourself to do something you’d do for free.
That’s the best feeling there is.
For instance, I’d paint for free. You bet your sweet ass I would. My favorite class in high school was fine art. I sucked at it, but I swear an hour and a half never went by faster.
All I had to do was put music in and draw. Heaven.
You have to “feel” it as a writer to create anything worthwhile. If your heart’s not in it, you won’t convince anybody to lend their heart to your story either.
Do This Before You Decide To Be A Rich and Famous Writer
Go journal for a few weeks. I firmly believe you’ll know if you’re a true writer by the time you’re done doing that.
If you can bring yourself to pour your heart out onto a blank page over and over again for weeks and actually enjoy it, then welcome to the writers brotherhood.
You belong.
If you write one journal entry and then never touch the journal again, do us all a favor and keep watching Netflix. I believe anybody can be a writer if they stay true to their story and trust their emotions.
However not everybody likes doing that.
Which is fine.
Just don’t parade around saying you want to be a writer and then keep asking about the money and how you’re not rich after 3 months.
This isn’t a gold rush. It’s an art form.
It’s like deciding to be a basketball player because you heard the NBA pays well. It’s like deciding to be a lawyer because you can make a lot of money doing it.
Those are empty reasons, and in a profession as personal and emotional as writing, there is simply no room for folks who are money hungry.
They will either drive themselves out of the profession by quitting or they’ll drive themselves into obscurity because all their pieces never quite packed the emotional punch they needed.
That’s real.
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Writing is so heart-centered that it is hard to fake if you're not into it. Great points, Tom.
That's an excellent way of looking at it! I never even knew I was a writer.. until I started Journaling through my divorce. It was a way to cope with the emotional situation but then things got wild and I was advised to turn it into a book. Now I'm writing for free on Substack but I'm writing about God and don't feel I should charge. This has really given me something to think about...Oh but I am charging for my book... on Amazon, but not alot. I figure if I make a dollar a book but sell a million books, I'm satisfied. 😊