Summary

The article discusses the balance between writing for passion and writing for financial gain, emphasizing the importance of both for a successful writing career on Medium.

Abstract

The article delves into the complex decision that writers on Medium face when it comes to writing for money. It presents the journeys of famous authors like Barack Obama and Stephen King, who have successfully monetized their writing, to illustrate that while passion is essential, financial success can be a significant measure of achievement. The author shares their personal experience, highlighting the motivational impact of earning even a small amount from their writing during the pandemic. The narrative underscores the importance of writing for an audience while maintaining a personal connection to the craft, ultimately advocating for a balance between financial incentives and creative fulfillment.

Opinions

Writing for money is not inherently bad; it can be a measure of success and a way to provide for oneself.
Passion for writing should not be overshadowed by the pursuit of money, as this can lead to losing one's creative essence.
Financial rewards from writing can serve as motivation and validation of one's work.
Successful writers like Stephen King have found their own balance between writing for love and writing for financial stability.
The author's personal journey reflects the idea that writing can transition from a hobby to a source of income, and even replace other forms of employment.
Writing on Medium can be financially rewarding, with the potential to cover costs such as membership fees, equipment, and living expenses.
The concept of Yin and Yang is used to describe the ideal balance between writing for money and writing for personal satisfaction.
The author emphasizes the importance of writing for an audience while also nurturing one's writing muse.
The article suggests that even modest earnings from writing can be significant and encouraging for a writer.
The author advocates for a personal approach to balancing financial gain and creative passion, tailored to individual needs and goals.

Is it bad to write for money?

The Hard Decision Medium Writers Have to Make If They Want to Make Money

The sooner, the better

Does Barack Obama write for money? I don’t think so, but you will find him here. Together with Michelle Obama, their joint book deal was worth $65 million, that’s according to Vox.

It would be nice to know if he or Hillary is part of the Medium Partner Program?

Anyone who loves writing will do it for free, but money is a great way to measure success in any field. And to many, it isn’t about the money, but in knowing they did it right, they succeeded when others ‘failed.’

I’m not saying money is everything or that anyone without money has failed in life.

Imagine if Stephen King ‘failed,’ then all the books and movies that came after Carrie would never have come to life.

If money didn’t come after Carrie, Stephen King would still be a high school English teacher and writing on weekends for something that sells. Totally fine, except that wasn’t King’s plan, he wanted to quit teaching but provide for Tabitha his wife, who by the way is also a great writer.

For Stephen King that was his yin and yang.

He threw the first few pages of Carrie because he thought it wouldn’t sell, if not for Tabitha King, we wouldn’t have been terrified by the sight of pig's blood.

It’s all in his book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

Medium writing

My journey here started in 2020. I joined much earlier, wrote a few stories back in 2017, and stopped.

Only after receiving a notification that I got paid for $1.41 during the pandemic that I put back on my writer’s hat and started writing again.

What else was there to do during those months of being locked up inside the house?

But I wasn’t doing it for money, that’s what I told myself. And while it was true, looking back it was also true that the $1.41 payment motivated me to write.

It took months before I made enough to pay my $5 membership fee from the Medium Partners Program and that was enough.

As long as it pays for itself, I’m doing great!

Then mom passed away, and I’m no longer a caregiver. Life has to continue and it’s either I take on photography jobs or write.

I chose to write.

I wanted it to work, enough that it could pay the bills.

I started putting more time into writing but wasn’t doing it ‘smart.’

Money is a bonus, I told myself.

When I first received the performance bonus Medium gave out last year, the more it made me want to do better. Then the bonuses stopped and I was back to making less than $100.

And these are the things we forget, Who pays for them? Us.

Laptop
Internet
Coffee

My 7-year-old laptop hasn’t been used and abused this much:). Internet and Coffee aren’t free.

What do I have to show as a Medium writer?

It’s 2022. It was only in February that I made over $100, and I made $266.35 in March, a 200%++fold increase. Thank you to all the readers, fellow writers, and the Universe!

I learned a few things in March, on top of that list is to write for my audience.

How do you write effectively in Medium? In 2021, I had one ‘viral’ story, it made over $250 but I never did a follow-up or looked at why it had that many readers. I thought it was a fluke.

It was a topic I thought I have little to say about, but last month I tried to do a follow-up story and it made over $50.

Yin and Yang

Photo by SHVETS production: https://www.pexels.com/photo/smiling-black-man-balancing-on-leg-in-studio-6974955/

Yin and Yang. All things, such as female-male, dark-light, and old-young, exist as inseparable and contradictory opposites, according to the Yin and Yang principle.

I will not go deeper than to say, it's all about keeping the balance.

As a Medium writer, I have to be smart. Even the top Medium writers do the same thing, write for their audience and write for their writing muse.

Without the other, there is no balance.

Writing only for money is a recipe for disaster, that’s how you lose yourself. Even Stephen King lost himself writing for money, and he turned to drugs and alcohol.

He went as far as saying, there were some stories he wrote that he hardly remembers today.

Since then, he rediscovered his yin and yang. He still writes every day and today he donates some of his books to charity.

Keeping his balance.

Final words

This isn’t a piece of advice for all the Medium writers, that would be too presumptuous of me, but a note to my writer self.

My yin and yang would be to write 10 stories that pay the bills, and the rest of my stories will be for my writing muse.

I need very little to survive, that’s my balance.

Feed your writing muse but also feed your body, a hungry body makes for a very weak writer, and we all know what happens to a writer without coffee?

It gets grumpy.

Thank you for reading.

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