love and money – i will always love you, part 1
As a kid, I spent a lot of time down in the basement thrashing away on my father’s ginormous industrial mint green typewriter.
Some of my first experiments in learning how stories worked involved writing hundreds of pages continuing other people’s stories -- fan fiction.
(Sadly, most of those early laboratory trials ended up in the trash during an early 20s moment of embarrassment for having ever been that terrible at anything.)
Years later, when the internet went from lines of black and white Kansas code to full-on Technicolor Yellow Brick Road, I rushed online and wrote stories for the faceless digital masses.
I didn’t care that no one knew who I was. I didn’t care that I didn’t make any money.
(That’s why I was going to college so I could get a “real” job, right?)
I wanted to write on the wild winds of whim and passion! No pressure. No performance anxiety.
If people read my experimental stories and liked them? Yay! Win.
If people didn’t like them? Oh well. So what. I didn’t care. It didn't matter. Take a number. Next!
It pisses me off when someone says, “If you’re making money with your writing, then you’re a capitalist sellout and not a real artist.”
Or other someones who say, “If you’re following your writing passions, then you’re a starving artist. Go get a real job.”
We need to stop buying into these bullshit binary labels for ourselves and each other.
It’s no one’s business what you choose to do with your writing, and one or the other does not determine the quality of your writing.
Earlier this month I gave a presentation at the RWA Contemporary Romance Writers conference exploring how you can have it all by writing what your readers want to buy without sacrificing writing the stories you love. This article is part of that conversation.
At some point, you’ve probably heard, “Write what you love. Who cares what anyone thinks? You need to write for yourself. If it’s good enough, people will buy it.”
When you’re writing what you love, you don’t have to think about your audience, the industry, reviews, or anything outside of yourself.
It’s all about you. You write for passion. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.
Reasons to write what you love
#1 The market is unpredictable.
Yesterday it’s dystopian YA, today it’s psychological women’s thrillers with Girl in the X titles, and tomorrow…? You can ride trends and make predictions, but the market is uncertain. What's hot right now today may not be hot tomorrow. Who knows what readers will eat like hot McDonald’s fries in a year. When those fries get cold, no one wants to eat them.
#2 You’re better at what you love.
We spend time and energy doing the things we love. Because we enjoy them, it’s not a struggle to practice them over and over. Because we practice we get better. I hated algebra in high school. I skipped classes and never studied. Consequently, I barely squeaked by with a passing grade. If the thought of writing military sci-fi gives you a skin rash, don't do it. No one's going to grade you.
#3 What you love has power
When you're passionate about your writing, your words have power. You are powerful. When your story has an impact on you, when it makes you feel something, it's has a better chance of making others feel something too. That power will also help fuel your motivation to keep going. Especially when it's summer and the sun is shining and you want to be out cavorting in the garden ... **cough**
#4 There are no guarantees.
Writing is like prospecting for gold. You buy a piece of creative land somewhere out there way across the unknown, spend months and money traveling to get there, and there are no guarantees. When you get there, it may or may not offer a return on your investment. When you're writing for love, you don't care if your word mine doesn't make you a millionaire, you're just thrilled to be there digging.
#5 Haters are going to hate.
You're never going to make everyone happy. There will always be someone out there who doesn't like what you write. Maybe someone who even sends you an email, writes a blog, posts a review, or otherwise professes to the world all the ways what you've written is wrong, stupid, offends them, or otherwise keeps them awake at night. Maybe it even a friend or someone you're related to. So write what you love and to hell with everyone else.
Because...
#6 We’re all going to die.
This shouldn't be a surprise, but we're all going to die. Write what you love. Mic drop.
I’ve worked with writers who think that love is the only reason to write. Or at least that’s what they tell me. “I know I’m not going to make any money writing. I’m not doing it for money. I’m doing it because I love writing. No one makes money writing."
Yes, you should absolutely love what you’re doing, but that doesn’t mean that wanting to make money while doing it is wrong. And it doesn't mean there aren't writers out there making lots of money on their writing.
Hello!
My name is Jocelyn.
Story warrior, book lover, day dreamer, gardener, and creative. I help serious writers roll up their sleeves, get their novel ready for publishing, and reach readers. When I’m not elbow-deep in the story trenches, I’m outside world-building in my garden and battling weeds with my three criminal mastermind cats.