Writing: It's all about the money....

Lawyers get paid to law, plumbers get paid to plumb. But writers?  Money is a dirty word, and expecting to get paid for your work proves you are no good, at best a hack.

But this is the thing: if you work for hundreds of hours on a book and don't even think about getting paid for it, you are telling yourself your time was worth nothing. Because your writing is worth nothing. And even a hack-work novel if written correctly is worth SOMETHING.

If part of your self-identity is being a writer, one thing you have to do is write. We all know that. Talking about writing, blogging about writing, that's all well and good. But the actual writing is where your writer self-identity becomes more real than your Klingon warrior identity.

But the other part of making the writer self-identity real is getting paid for your work. That may make you uncomfortable. But if you knew a guy who said he was a lawyer, and he never once had gotten paid for doing any lawyer work but got his income working at Kmart, would you take him seriously as a lawyer?  Getting paid--- or at least, doing writing for which you can anticipate being paid--- tells you that your writer identity has a basis in the real world.

So, starting today, resolve this: you are a writer. Your writing time is working time. Your writing is worth something in a dollars-and-cents sense. If you are a beginning writer, perhaps the worth of your current WIP will prove to be as basic training for a future work that is salable. But perhaps not. Write every word as a professional writer writing to put a bit of money in the bank, not as a hobbyist who can get away with any old thing so long as it feels good, or a dreamer who wants every word to drip literary quality and non-commercialism.

In other words, take yourself and your writing seriously.


Blog notes: I was going to discontinue this blog in favor of my new blog Let's Kill Hitler, but it looks like I'm not. That blog is going to be about science fiction, fantasy and western books and TV shows. (Western? It's my new obsession. I'm working on a Western/zombie novel.) This blog is about writing. Another blog is going to be about politics, religion, prolife, and gay chaste stuff. I need a new name for that one and am open to suggestions.