A full-time writer without job and income

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel from Pexels

I don’t have any jobs right now.

I don’t have a business venture. I don’t even have inherited wealth. I am not a landowner. I don’t have property. I haven’t stolen any money nor have I robbed anyone. I am not a retired guy with pension-support. I haven’t created anything useful yet, therefore, I don’t earn royalties.

I am just a person who has decided to write full-time. A person who wants to learn, think, write and live a decent life.

I once had jobs and business ventures. Then came Covid!

It’s not that COVID decimated anything. It merely had an impact on one area of my work. I could have hung-on. But I didn’t. I just got to thinking so much about the world and its future that I retreated from everything else and decided to focus on living a life as a writer.

For me, learning has always been the most important thing. I had once even published a couple of books. But I had a job to support me then so I didn’t care much on promoting/marketing them. Those books just rot now. I don’t want that to happen anymore! I am now a full-time writer who earns nothing.

So how do I earn my living currently?

How did I once earn my living?

What do I plan on doing?

I want to answer these questions briefly and sign out.

How do I earn my living currently?

I have a supportive family. Down here in Nepal, it’s not unusual to spend an entire life in the same house. Most of us live with parents. Most parents live with their parents! With that cultural privilege, a bit of shamelessness and a lot of support, I am currently surviving. I do have a very minimal lifestyle, so that helps. I am running out of family-privilege-credit though.

How did I once earn my living?

I have worked here and there. Here I have listed it chronologically:

1. Content Writer: This was a decade ago. Some guy used to email me a few keywords a day. I had to make articles and submit them. He used to pay me $ 0.50 an article at the end of the month.
2. Art Company: Started a company to publish books, music and movies. Still exists. Unfinished Documentaries. Unmonetized YouTube channels.
3. Job in Non-Profit 1: I worked as a letter writer, typist, a project-thinker and a semi-researcher in a local non-profit think tank. Income was not steady. But I earned a little and learnt a lot. This is when I published my books.
4. Job in a Non-Profit 2: A digital caretaker of a renowned person here in Nepal.
5. Tech Business Company: Started a company with 4 other friends with a dream to revolutionize technology in Nepal. One month in, the guys only cared about SEO-driven content vomiting. I quit.
6. Job in a Resort: I still don’t know what I was supposed to do there. But, it was about being something of a digital caretaker. This is the area where COVID had an impact.

What do I plan on doing?

I just want to write substantial stuff. My priviledge-credit is running out. I just have to earn.

I cannot go back to SEO-driven blogging. I don’t consider it to be writing. I’d rather go back to being a digital-caretaker.

I do not have enough skill and time for video-editings. I am trying. But I want to create substantial stuff. I’d rather go back to SEO-driven blogging than work on trendy videos.

Non-profit jobs are mostly about letter writings. I’d rather make trendy videos.

Any type of entrepreneurship demands great business and market attention. I have experienced it. I am more attentive towards Arthur C. Clarke and V.S. Ramachandran currently. This requires tremendous balance. I am trying.

What am I really planning on doing?

Learning, thinking, writing and living a decent life.

But how?

By Learning, thinking and Writing.

Medium, Freelancing, screenplays, video-scripts, whatever. It has to allow me to write substantial stuff creatively.

My country isn’t eligible with Medium’s Partner Program. So I am earning nothing here. But I like the freedom and opportunity it provides.

I don’t see any other option.

Do You? Ko-fi.com/fradesh