The Creative Writing Reality - a Positive Look at Profitable Writing

Online or in print, creative writing is about getting paid for your art. And always, creative writing is an art. The reality is hard to define for this bursting field. You can get jobs. You can get paid. You almost always will be courting rejection, and often it takes months if not years to start bringing in "real" income.

If you want to get paid as a creative writer, here are a few thoughts.

Write for Yourself?

No, write for others. This is a two way street, in many ways. For example, in the noted magazine "The Writer," famous horror novelist R.L. Stine pointed out you should write for others more than for yourself. However, in my own opinion a little of both truly helps. If you write only for profit, you may miss out on the fun of creative writing. If you write only for fun, you often miss out on how profitable any form of creative writing can be. Even poetry is bought!

Getting Paid, The Reality:

The reality for creative writers today is there are thousands, if not tens of thousands or even more, of truly talented writers out there. That's the competition. There are also plenty of people who want to be writers but "Cannot start" "Cannot find the time" or even "Won't get paid." That isn't meant as saying these creative writers are somehow bad. However, if you write almost every day, you are ahead of half the people who want to be writers.

So getting paid means ...

Writing Every Day:

In his classic book for screenwriters called "Emotional Structure," Peter Dunne notes you are only a writer on the days you write. Consider the basics of writing every day; it means volume; it means profit. Consider the art of sitting down and putting 500 words on the page every single day. The old cliché is that's a book in a year or less! Well, that's also a few articles a week, or a successful business writing career paying $750 or more a page. 500 words sounds better, doesn't it?

Profit Comes In:

Some writers see J.K. Rowling pulling in 300 million a year (a fact), or business writers making smaller amounts but still respectable six figure salaries. The reality for creative writers is we all think we can do it. No problem. Good idea. But there are a few hundred novelists making a living. There are, on the other side, tens of thousands of successful business writers. See the picture? Even magazine writers often pull in six figure salaries. Even online creative writers can see their salaries double with hard work. Excited?

The Art Comes In:

Just about everything comes down to art. Often we value our art more than we do profit, and for good reason. Art shines a light on the world. There is nothing wrong with dreaming. If you want to write a fantasy novel series and don't care if you sell it, no problem. It's supposed to be fun! It almost always leads to better writing as you learn, evolve, and understand what you're good at.

That's the best reality. And when you get paid for it, $100 or $100,000, you're being recognized.