Are You Writing For The Money?

Why do you wake up in the morning? To attack the day and make the most of the time you have, or simply because you must?

What is your primary motivation for writing?

• Are you the headline-grabber, ‘I made $10,000 with my first article’?
• Are you the consistent writer, ‘I write three times a week, every week about tea’ ?
• Are you the top dipper, ‘I’ll try it for a few months’?

Regardless of which side of the triangle you fall on, you are here. Whether you check your stats every day, look over your earnings like Scrooge or merely glance over proceedings, you are here.

It Doesn’t Matter

The money is great and if someone handed me ten thousand pounds then I would not say no. It is not however my main motivation. It is a secondary benefit. Writing is my primary hobby. It offers a breath of fresh air in an otherwise turbulent existence that we call, life.

Writing is about expression. It’s about taking a subject, writing, editing and crafting it into something that people want to read. Whether for money or views or even for my own benefit. It is the craft that is most important.

Reading articles about how to earn $10,000 does not motivate me. What motivates me is a discussion on craft, sentence structure, appealing to the audience and exciting authors that people are following.

The craft is my primary concern in life. If I manage to make a few thousand, then fantastic, but that is not the be-all to end all of everything. I want to create articles that get people talking and in the long run, create my own novel.

Writing a Book

Crafting a novel is something which that I have always wanted to do. To sit down and create a narrative that stands the test of time. This would be the ultimate legacy for me. Beyond children and family, it would be writing a novel that people enjoy for years to come.

Earning money from the novel would be the ultimate win but that is not the reason for writing. Much like those articles which brag about how much money has been earned, if that is why you write, then you are writing for the algorithm. Is that what type of writer you wish to be?

Algorithms randomly chooses articles to set as ‘trending’. The mere mention of this word sets hearts racing but if you write to get here, then are you sacrificing the heart? Writing comes from the heart, not a list of subjects that will ping up on someone’s homepage. Something that is so heavily skewed for earning money and being picked up that a robot could have written it.

Jealous?

To offer an example, a few months back I received a bonus of $100, off the back of one of my articles. One article in a list of 150 which was published through a publication and ended up on the front page.

From this I can look at the story, Stadia Has Once Again Found a Place in the House’ and analyse why it was successful. Why did people read it and why did they clap? This is what is important for me. The engagement and the feeling that you have reached people. Your message has been understood.

This is what is important in the long run. Again, if someone offers me a huge bag of cash to write a novel, then I will not say no. That is not what will motivate me though.

Most of us who write online are not here to get rich quickly. We are here to engage with our peers and share ideas. We are here to improve and also learn something. I am not here to be a millionaire.

Motivation is Subjective

Everything is true from a certain point of view. This is why we have a multitude of media outlets across the world. If there was one truth that we all accepted then surely there would only be one source of right and wrong.

I believe in equality and whilst it is a lofty ideal, it is also one in which I can get behind. I believe that we are all born with the ability to craft a narrative in our heads. One that we believe in and as long as we are not harming others, then we should be free to push forward with that.

If you are motivated by money and you enjoy reading those endless stories about how a writer made thousands on their first day, then more power to you. I am not a fan. I would rather earn ten cents a story and end up in obscurity than be bragging about how much I have made.

We are here to learn from each other. Whether that is owing to book reviews, video game analysis or simply how to craft an addictive narrative. This is what I am interested in and yes, the money is great and will help with my Pokemon card addiction, but it is not the most important consideration.

A Final Thought

Money is great but that is not my chief motivator. I am motivated by the skill, the engagement and feedback. The good and the bad, as you cannot have it every way. Sometimes you will create a classic and other times, you will end up with bargain bin fodder.

The money is a nice bonus and I was chuffed to receive a bonus in May but it is not everything. I could sell it as such, yet it was due to one article that I was successful here. Other articles of that nature have reached hundreds, not tens of hundreds and so it was the right place, right time.

The most important consideration that I took from the adventure were the comments and the highlights. Seeing what people pulled out and why. What was important to me was not important to them. That learning experience was more valuable than any bonus out there.