Writing

Alms for the Author

All writers are beggars

I started writing on Medium on the obscure topic of Medieval Project Management which you can find in my publication Trebuchet. The stories are a tonic for the self-gratifying posts found infesting LinkedIn. What I did not expect was to have my coffers filled with passive income!

Stories published even months ago continue to be read and reap rewards. Just look at the income from these stories. Better yet, go read them!

All writers are beggars. We hope to make cover our expenses with our creativity whether it is to escape trading hours for dollars that could be spent writing, cover the cost of cappuccino while typing at the café, or just cover the Medium community member dues. I have had the good fortune to fall into this last category consistently.

Even more important to the writer than coin of the realm are readers. We pursue the passersby with sheaves of our scribbled stories calling out “Read it!” and “Tell me what you think!”. I dare say our reader’s eyes are dearer to us than their wallets. A tuppence will be spent by dusk but a comment will keep us warm through the night.

Let me spin you a yarn for a cent Lord, would it not be a sin to deny yourselves a tale? A penny, a penny, a penny for an old beggar-man’s story A story. A penny for a tale.

So here I am with pennies a plinking, hauling in perhaps a tenth of what I could make with crutch and cup outside the cathedral but instead, I have chosen the literati highbrow of beggardom.

The destitute writer, with nothing more than a leaky fountain pen, a candle stub, and a jug of wine, toiling at wordsmithing is the stuff of legends. Who among us would not trade a suburban lifestyle for a cold-water flat and a typewriter in Hell’s Kitchen? So let me share my flask and give a toast to my fellow word-slaves.