Can You Earn Money As A Writer?
Whom should we aspiring writers listen to? — Frustrated writers or successful ones?
I want to live my life as a writer and give myself a good life and fulfill my wants. I haven’t earned anything yet, but I want to. Our world is full of opportunities which means there are lots of things I can do to live and fulfill my dreams. Yet, for about a decade now I have hung-on to this weird vision of me — a writer — one day living a great life with all my subtle and crazy dreams being fulfilled. In between I have done this and that…but I have persisted.
But today I had a crisis. I melted. All my perseverance and hope crumbled at the sight of a reality: I am in a dire financial situation and have earned no other credibility as a writer yet. Of course, there have been joys and beautiful emotional moments! But that doesn’t provide the cash needed for various other purposes. So, today I slapped my reveries and questioned myself. I was strangely calm, however, so I accepted that I was now ready to move on to something else and quit the writer-dream.
But again, before calling somebody who could provide me a job, I — for the last time — decided to search this question on google:
Can you earn money as a writer?
What followed was answers on Quora.
I took a deep breath and dived. I read people’s opinion on this question — made with assertion of course — and it got me paranoid. I sweated and questioned my sanity.
What the fuck was I thinking trying to make it as a writer!
This was absurd all along. I need to move out of this quickly. I need to make this call right now. These were some words I read on Quora:
It is really really hard making good money as a writer.
Short answer: NO.
Like any other job, it is possible, but not very likely.
No.
There’s more chance of getting hit by lightning.
I felt strange. I felt nervous. In simple words: I wanted to die.
How can all these people be wrong? There’s no way to make money as a writer! Why didn’t I read these hard truths a decade ago?
I closed the tab and pondered upon what I should be saying to that person. Upon what I would be comfortable doing.
I remembered all those blokes who had made me dream. All those writers who showed hope. As one last act of remembrance, I closed my eyes and thought of them.
Right then…
I noticed something strange:
I had never heard of a single person who wrote those answers on quora!
I didn’t see Paulo Coelho there. I didn’t see Stephen King there. I didn’t see Dan Brown there. I didn’t see Neal Stephenson there. I didn’t see Murakami there. I didn’t see McCarthy there. I saw no Cory Doctorow there.
I immediately pressed Ctrl H and re-opened the tab.
I looked at the bio of all those people and noticed something in common in all of them:
They were all frustrated writers. They were all writers who couldn’t make it or were troubled by the industry. There was no one I knew and was inspired by. There wasn’t anyone there, looking at whom I had once dreamed of living as a writer. All were just like me:
frustrated, troubled…on the verge of giving up. Ones who have given up!
As of now I don’t know if I will fulfill my dreams as a writer but I would rather try, fail and move on to something else than discourage people on the internet by spilling my frustrations!
I should try to earn a great living as a writer or as anything else. I should not — at any cost — become a frustrated Quora opinionator.
Here’s to them:
Just because you couldn’t make it doesn’t mean others can’t. So shut up and move on to something else!
