I'm here to write, not make money

Hustle culture has got me trying to monetise my hobbies. I can’t do anything just for fun without thinking of how I could spin it to make money from it.

I’m not broke or struggling for an income. I’m not rich either though, I get by. However, the fact that I can pay my bills and don’t have to count my pennies until next payday is still a lot more money than many people have. I know I’m lucky and privileged to be in such a situation. But it doesn’t stop me from wanting to earn more money.

I don’t want to want money, but we live in a capitalism and money speaks. If I have more money I can spend less time working and more time doing the things I enjoy. So that’s how I reached the conclusion that I need to make money from the things I enjoy. The equation looks simple on paper, but actually making money from your hobbies isn’t actually as easy as it sounds.

Writing, crafts, gaming, travel, reading. None of it has yet to give me an income. I tell myself I’m not here on Vocal writing about this hoping that someone will read it and think I’m brilliant and pay me to start writing a weekly column on whatever I happen to be thinking about that week. But secretly I am. Every time I try to monetise I think maybe this is the time that I get seen by the right person and the right time who shares my work to the right place and all of a sudden my little side hustle is a success. It doesn’t work like that.

I’m not here to get noticed. I’m here because I want to be a writer and an important part of being a writer is doing some actual writing. If you don’t practise writing you won’t get good at writing. That’s my goal.

I’m trying to change my outlook on monetising my hobbies. If it’s something that I would be doing anyway, then it’s OK to try and monetise it. If I do it for nothing, just because I want to, it’s OK if no one wants to pay money for it. It’s not time wasted because it’s time I would have spent doing that anyway. If I’m only doing it because I want to make money from it, then maybe I should stop doing it.

I’m here writing so that I can get better at writing. Last time I considered joining Vocal I sifted through categories and contributors looking for where there was a space I thought I could fill, looking for my ‘niche’. This time is about putting words on the page. It’s going to be all over the place. It might be about writing, it might be about cross stitching, it might be some fiction pieces, it might be about learning Japanese. I’m here to write, not be read.

Of course I want you to read this and say “Alice, you’re the most interesting and amazing person, your writing is incredible, such raw talent, here’s a million trillion dollars”. It’s not going to happen, I know. But what’s the quote - “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”.

I could sit at home and whine about having to go to work for another day and not do anthing and nothing will change. Or I can do something. If I want to write, I’ll write. Zero expectations except that I’m putting in the time to work on my skills and get better at something I enjoy.

So why not just write in a diary or document on my laptop instead of a site on the internet where people publish their work specifically with the intent of making some money from it? Because I just can’t crush that glimmer of hope of fame and fortune. It almost certainly won’t happen. But it definitely won’t happen if I don’t share my writing here. If I’m doing the writing anyway, then why not do it somewhere that has a 0.0000000001% chance to bring in some coin to help me get just that little bit closer to being able to live the life I want.