I’ve taken back my writing and I’m going full steam ahead – this time it’s business.
Knowing that I didn’t make any money at writing last year doesn’t bother me, because last year it wasn’t about making money. Instead, it was about becoming comfortable with being a writer and myself I did that, I think, rather successfully.
However, now it’s time to start to make a living at being a writer, now that I am confident I am one. This is a new area for me, and like all new areas, it’s a bit scary and overwhelming. Sometimes I’m tempted to buckle at the pressure but instead, I’m learning to look at it as an adventure. Because in some regards, it is one.
This morning I had a talk with a friend of mine who also runs her own business. We were talking about at which point does it go from work to hobby, and is money the deciding factor. We also talked about how we were both getting honest with money – that it is important and you have to be realistic. Though, we discovered that sometimes being realistic about money is scary because if you don’t have it, you can feel like you’ve failed.
Although I’ve made some money it’s not near what I want and I know if I don’t start to make more soon I’ll be tempted to discard all the progress, publishing, relationships, and wonderful moments just because I don’t have a penny to show for any of it. I don’t want that to happen, I don’t want to ever think I’ve failed because I’m not rich.
Instead, I want to be able to prove that you can make a living, so it’s time for me to start.
I’ve found a whole bunch of books on marketing and writing for money and will start to buy them as soon as I, well, have money. A new copy of Writer’s Digest had some contests and some leads for writing, and I’ve already followed up on a couple of them. I’m investigating all options with regards to money – selling my artwork, selling books, selling more articles, expanding my writing to write anything. As long as it’s creative, it’s beneficial to me and I’m happy to do it, I’ll do it. I’m not so afraid of taking on jobs or doing other things that don’t have to do with writing, because I’m a writer now and that won’t change. But there’s this thing called survival and sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
Not that I’m looking for a part-time job or anything because I have to see if I can make money at writing first. I honestly haven’t tried that hard before because as I said, money didn’t matter. But with the computer breaking down, the car needing to be replaced and life just happening, money matters now.
And somehow, I just feel able to deal with it all now, and know it’ll all be ok.
