The Writing Lie That Just Won't Die
How do you write anything worth reading with your mind so closed?
Yesterday I stumbled across a comment on a post I would never otherwise read.
Medium has a feature that allows you to post your comments to your profile. Anytime you leave a comment on someone’s post, there’s a tiny box under the comment field that says “publish to my profile.”
I don’t use that feature, but yesterday it proved to be interesting.
I’d received a submission to one of my publications so I clicked to check out the writer’s profile. And on her profile, there sat a comment that made me laugh.
It said something to the effect of this...
Can we stop pretending it’s more noble to write without caring about the money? You aren’t a better or more noble writer because you don’t care about money. Writing can be a hobby. It can also be a career. We all have bills. Show me a doctor who does surgery because he loves being given the opportunity.
That’s not verbatim, but it’s pretty close.
I liked her instantly. I don’t know if she meant to post that comment to her profile or if it was a slip of the finger, but either way it was delightful because I’d never have clicked to read the post she commented on in the first place.
The post she’d replied to was finger-wagging about writers wanting to get paid and saying good writing isn’t about money, it’s about the love of writing.
I don’t even read crap like that. I would never have clicked the post.
Tell that to Margaret Atwood. Or Stephen King. They should write for free, right? Just sign up to Medium or Vocal and put those books out, one chapter at a time, free. So they, too, can be noble writers who don’t care about money. lol
Tell that to James Patterson, who is currently one of the five highest-paid authors on the planet, and earns 70-90 million per year. From writing.
Sure, some people don’t care about the money. That’s fine. Especially if that person has a day job or spouse that pays the bills. We all have bills. Life isn’t free.
That doesn’t mean everyone shouldn’t care about the money.
You know what a vocation is, right? It’s something you have a calling for.
I am very grateful that understanding the human heart was the vocation that called to Daniel Hale Williams. In 1893, he opened a man’s chest, repaired a torn artery and saved the man’s life. It was the first successful heart surgery in history and what he learned has saved a lot of lives, including people I am related to.
No one would ever expect a surgeon to do what he does for the “love” of it. But they often expect that of writers, artists and creative people.
Writing is a vocation, too. It calls to some people. Telling those people they should write for free, or for the “exposure” is nonsense.
It’s the lie that just won’t die.
Neil Gaiman said he used to think his career was a frivolous one, making up stories. Until a woman sent him a letter saying when her mom was dying and in a great deal of pain, she sat beside her and read her one of his books. She watched her mother’s blood pressure and vital statistics finally relax and she wanted to thank him.
Add to that the number of people who found a safe landing place in books. Oprah once said she was so abused as a child that the library saved her life. Escaping into books saved her. She’s not the only one who says that.
Margaret Atwood likes to say that stories are built into the human plan. We come with them. I like that a lot. The same applies to judging each other. Apparently.
There is nothing wrong with writing for free if that’s what someone wants to do. There is also nothing wrong with wanting to get paid decently, in fair accordance with one’s skill at the craft. One does not negate the other.
I’m not sure a person can even be a good writer in the first place if they can’t see that there are more perspectives than their own.
How do you write anything worth reading with your mind so closed?
On Medium…
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If you enjoy my writing, please click the heart or share this post. Thanks. :)
xo,
Linda
I hear that comment as a teacher, also. People seem to think teachers got into teaching because they love teaching and not for the money. Therefore, working long hours with no pay comes with being a teacher.
If I didn't get paid as a teacher or tutor, there is no way I would work for free. When I leave school after work, my work as a teacher also stops. I spend my time at home writing and doing other things.
The stupidest thing I heard was from a speaker at a workshop I attended. It went something like this:
If you love teaching, money doesn't matter. You would teach anyway.
Lol, if I didn't get paid for teaching, I would do something else.
It's sad to hear people think that way about writing. I write and want to get paid for it also.
Thank you for sharing.
It's a vocation that can also be a career, but only in the right circumstances. It's not either/or; it's both/and.
I wrote both before and after I started earning money for it. Same process, same mindset. Nothing has really changed.
But the problem is that some earn little or no money from it, and others earn too much. The scales are not in the favor of the former because of the way the Internet forces us to haggle for attention so often.
Atwood and King both did jobs they didn't like for a long time before they could write full-time, and their situation is not unique. That's what everyone who touts writing as a career doesn't understand.