5 Annoying Ass Writer Stereotypes That Aren’t True

Brace yourself.

Writing is probably the most misunderstood profession on the planet.

I mean, who wants to understand it? When you hear the word “writer” it doesn’t really scream “cool job”. Even with the digital age we’re in now, people still look at writing as a boring job with no real money to be made.

Well here’s the shocker — a writing job isn’t what you think it is. Here are five annoying-ass stereotypes about writers that aren’t true.

1. Writers aren’t fun.

To keep it real with you, I almost gave into this stereotype. Maybe it’s because I’m young and you don’t see a lot of young writers in their 20’s making it.

I had to step back for a second and look at a writer’s Instagram that I follow. Let’s just say some wild shit goes down in his life. The fun club kind. He turned up at a club in Miami with banging rap music and pole dancing for days.

But if you look at his blog posts, you’d be confused about who wrote it. He’s not writing about clubbing in his articles. Guess what his niche is — self-improvement. So you might want to leave that stereotype that writers aren’t fun at home.

Like come on, we have lives too.

2. Writers are very smart.

Now, this isn’t to say that writers aren’t smart. I’m saying that writers don’t have this whimsical Ivy League degree that most people would think. There are famous writers who dropped out of college and make a killing in the writing world.

You don’t have to know rocket science to write well. When people think of a writer, they think of some prolific poet like Shakespeare and expect us to study every word of his writing to type words on a blank screen.

Or they just think we’re know-it-alls who tried too hard in class and got the best test scores. Either way, writing doesn’t take as many brain cells as you think.

Writing words? Everyone does that.

3. Writers don’t make money.

No, no, no.

I can’t believe I contemplated being a writer for five years and almost turned a blind eye to it because my English teacher told me that writers don’t make money. I used to dream of being a Zora Neale Hurston and writing influential stories for people to look at years from now (I can only imagine).

“How can someone make beautiful art like this and only get paid a dime?” I thought.

Now I see bunches of writers who make six figures or more doing what they love. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still rare. But every time I see a writer make it, it just goes to show that if you love the craft, you’ll find a way to make money from it eventually.

4. Writers are great at grammar.

*Pulls out Grammarly for a spell check*

Grammar is the snore-fest part of writing. Unfortunately, it’s something you need to do well to be a good writer. Or at least have writing that people won’t get annoyed reading.

I write every day and I’ll tell you right now that I’m far from a grammar goddess. Most of my mistakes are easy catches that I still miss which is why writers have to read their drafts a few times before they’re ready to publish.

When I write, I just want to write. I’m not thinking about all of the grammatical errors I’m making. That’s like the annoying people on YouTube who reply to someone’s comment telling them “Oh, you missed a C in the word Chicken”. Get a life dude.

Writers don’t have time for that.

5. Writers just write books to get that NY TIMES BESTSELLER credit.

If I told you I never aspired to be a NY Times bestselling author, I’d be telling you I’ve never breathed before.

That’s the pinnacle, right? You waste a few thousand bucks to publish a few crappy books and a few killer books. Hopefully, killer enough to get on that magical list then you’re writing career is fulfilled and you can die in peace.

Although it’d be cool to have the title, that’s not the sole reason why writers are put on this earth. There are other things to write besides books. Like this article you’re reading right now.

Just look up any famous blogger online and you can see that writers have different goals. Some writers want that title and some writers just want to chill and write content online.

To each his own. Just know that the NY Times Bestselling title is just a title and it doesn’t define a good writer.

Conclusion

There you have it, writers aren’t self-absorbed, poor introverts who stare at their desk all daydreaming of writing a book that becomes a NY Times bestseller.

We are fun, we do make good money, we aren’t grammar prodigies, and we don’t look at a title for writing merit. It’s easy to look through the rose-colored glasses of professions like gamers or movie directors and assume that writing is a bland job.

I thought that too. From the outside looking in, writing is a bland job. But if you dive a little deeper into the writing world, you’ll find so many outliers to the previous stereotypes that you’d think writers are rockstars.

Who knows? Maybe gaming is more of a boring profession than you think.