Is Writing Just a Gateway for Real Work?

Is writing just a gateway for “real” work? It would seem so, if you listen to industry experts now. I am NOT a fan of the idea that writers have to wear 8,000 hats to make money, all while their words get devalued. Rebel with me by showing your agreement with this video by leaving me a comment on Instagram.

The basic sentiment I have been getting — not only from the Forbes article I mention, but from other sources, too — is that writing is almost something to see in passing. It’s not a flower in itself, but rather dirt other flowers grow in. And quite frankly, I can’t accept that.

Writing itself has value. It blossoms and is beautiful and gives joy. It can teach things about life and allow people to genuinely live by learning, through expression, who they are.

I don’t just say this because I am a writer myself. I say it because every gift of God stands on its own. Some of us dance. Some of us build buildings. Some of us write. And to say that a gift is not a gift, but rather only a way to get what REALLY matters, is to deny a design God gave to thousands of people.

This isn’t to say you can’t take the opportunities writing grants to you. Rather, it’s just to say that writing is not consulting, appearing on TV, or any number of other things you could get paid for on the side. If you write, those other things are nice, but they cannot serve as substitutes for a calling. We need to stop behaving in the industry as though they can or should.

Photo credit:
Ilona Ilyés from Pixabay

[Transcript summary]

I wanted to talk to you today about an article I saw — I believe I saw it in Forbes. The idea in the article was basically that, in order to make a living as a writer, you have to make money from peripheral things. So, for example, your writing might get noticed. And then that gets you a consulting gig, or maybe a television appearance But the idea is that you’re not really making money from the writing itself. You’re making it from these side things. And I’m not necessarily opposed to that. But this idea that you cannot make a living from the writing itself at all, that bothers me, because you should be able to have the writing be valued for the writing itself. If you can get extra things on top of it, that’s great. But to tell people that, well, you can’t make a living doing it and you have to do all these side opportunities if you want to survive, that just devalues the craft.