Before You Can Make Money from Writing the Writing Part Has to Happen

Writing makes you a better person.

There are plenty of ways to make money online from writing, but you have to put in consistent effort first. When you’ve put in the work, the money will follow.

There is no one size fits all process when it comes to monetizing your writing.

My journey may look different from yours because everyone comes with varying degrees of skill, knowledge, and ideas. No one person can tell you exactly what to do to make money from your writing.

I can tell you about my process.

I can share with you how I went from 0 to $1,000 a month on Medium and climbing, in five months, but the journey won’t look identical for everyone, you may make more than me. But there will be one similarity — you need to show up.

So, until you start earning an income from your writing, shift your focus from “when will I make money” to working on the process of writing because that is the part you have control over.

Focus on the positives of writing without earning an income

When you first set out to become a paid writer, make the money part a secondary thought and the writing part your primary focus.

Do these things first

• Read
• Write
• Learn — Be curious
• Write about varying topics
• Aim to help people through your writing
• Take an online writing class

Writing is a gift. Anyone can do it; you just need a piece of paper and a pen or a computer and a keyboard.

Every writer is unique.

There are many better writers than me, but no one has my story to tell, and no one can tell my story the way I do.

You have a story.

You are the only one with that story, tell it the way only you know how to tell it, from your perspective. Think about that the next time you compare yourself to another writer with more success, which is a common theme among the brave who try to write for a living.

The beauty is writing is a skill, and the more you work to hone your distinct writing voice, the better your writing skills get. All it takes is time and practice. Every famous writer agrees that to be a better writer; you need to write and write often.

The famous author, Neil Gaiman, talks about when he sits down to write at his computer; he has to either write or stare out the window and do nothing. He can’t check social, he can file his nails, he can’t listen to music, he has to sit in the chair and write, or think.

Those are his two choices. He gets so bored that he starts typing because typing is less tedious than staring out the window.

Write daily first

Since writing every day consistently, the act of daily practice has improved my life in other areas and reminded me why I come back to writing again and again after I’ve abandoned it for a while.

Even before I got paid to write, I got something out of it.

Here they five things I get out of writing every day, and five reasons to keep writing even if you aren’t getting paid

1. You sharpen your thinking — A daily writing habit has made my mind sharper and allowed me to get more accomplished in less time, thus increasing my productivity. The more I use my writers’ muscle, the sharper I feel in every area of my life. When I first started, it was a struggle to get a post finished, but now that I’ve been writing one post a day for six months, my writers’ muscle is more developed, my writing goes smoother and faster. If I don’t write at least five times a week, I feel like something is missing.
2. Your writing skills improve — To improve writing skills you need to write. I still have a lot of room for improvement, but I’m a better writer than I was six months ago and faster at writing a concise blog post.
3. Writing is therapeutic — Writing one’s thoughts and feelings, sorting them out on paper, and not just ruminating on them in your mind has proven to reduce anxiety and stress. A brain dump of a stressful event is sometimes all you need to stop thinking about it. When you write about something that is bothering you, you automatically start working on a solution, and sometimes the answer is as simple as releasing it, which stops obsessive overthinking, getting it down on paper is one way to do this.
4. The more you learn, the more you want to know — Writing for Medium has made me more curious. I like doing research. Your reader learns to trust you as a writer when you back up your writing with reliable research. Knowledge begets more knowledge.
5. You know yourself better — There is nothing like getting your thoughts down on paper to know yourself. To articulate your thoughts into words is an excellent exercise in knowing yourself. If you write every day, you become acutely aware of your thoughts — what’s on your mind, your ideas, concerns, worries, the stories you tell yourself. One way to know who you are is through writing, reading, talking, and thinking. I think the best writers know themselves. They are confident in who they are and what they want to say. Self-knowledge comes from being aware of your thoughts — self-awareness.

You will eventually make money when you put in consistent work. If you show up, keep writing, you will pass the threshold where your work adds value and the money will flow.

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Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering type-A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.