Summary

In 2022, the author has decided to stop writing for income and instead focus on writing about topics that are personally meaningful, particularly those related to women and her own health condition, Lipedema.

Abstract

The author, who began writing at the age of 51 and became a paid writer on Medium, reflects on their writing journey over the past four years. They acknowledge a lack of consistency in writing and the need for passion in their chosen topics to avoid feeling like it's a waste of time. The author has struggled to find a niche, dabbling in various subjects from domestic violence to women's issues, and even starting a publication called The Virago. Despite some financial success on platforms like Medium and NewsBreak, the author realized that writing for money was unfulfilling and led to stress and a sense of inauthenticity. Now, they have chosen to return to writing as a passion, focusing on women's issues and their personal experience with Lipedema, rather than pursuing writing as a primary career.

Opinions

The author believes that writing without passion is a waste of time and leads to inconsistency.
They have found it challenging to maintain a consistent focus on a specific niche, despite recognizing its importance for a successful writing career.
Writing for income caused the author stress and unhappiness, making them feel that their articles were hollow and not reflective of their true interests.
The author values authenticity in their writing and prefers to write about topics that move them, such as women's issues and Lipedema, rather than chasing financial gain.
They have decided that their measure of writing success should not be based on the amount of money made but on the personal satisfaction derived from the act of writing.

In 2022, I’m No Longer Writing For an Income

I should have known better

Never in a million years did I ever believe I’d get paid for my writing.

I’ve had no formal training, nor had I ever written something for others to read. However, at the age of 51, I joined Medium and became a paid writer for the first time ever. I was ecstatic!

That was four years ago, and my fledgling writing career over the past four years has shown me the type of writer I am at the core.

Consistency

To start with, I’m not a consistent writer. I’ll go weeks without writing anything. Then I’ll have a good idea and put my restless fingers to the keyboard. Then I’ll stop again.

I’ll even make a pact with myself to write a little bit every day. But after a week or so, I get frustrated and lose interest. Sigh.

I’ve found I must be passionate about the topic I’m writing. Otherwise, I feel like I’m wasting my time.

I also need to stop punishing myself if I do something other than writing, like cleaning the house or visiting a friend. I don’t need to be so hard on myself.

Niche Writing

I’ve also found I’m unclear on a niche for my writing. At first, I wrote about domestic violence. Being in a violent relationship for many years, I can speak to the intricacies of this kind of toxicity. After a while, I found my PTSD surfacing with each article, and I had to stop.

I went through a period of writing about anything and everything; pets, politics, writing, dating, relationships, COVID, healthcare, money…anything was up for grabs.

Writing about “everything” was overwhelming, so I picked one topic I love to write about; women. I started writing about women’s issues in general, a passionate topic of mine. I started a Medium publication, The Virago, which has been successful. I love to write about women’s history, women living in a patriarchal and misogynistic society, self-care, boundaries, and feminism…women, women…anything about women. But I can’t even niche myself into this broad category either.

Keeping up with The Virago, I also decided to dive deeper into my esoteric work, so I started a newsletter and a Tik-Tok. That fell flat, too, mostly because I didn’t give it the attention it needed. Instead, I felt overwhelmed…again.

Then I got diagnosed with Lipedema (the same condition as Shannon Ashley). It’s a complex disease to control, and being a nurse, I felt I could help others navigate the medical system and talk about self-care. I started a newsletter for this too. This is my latest passion, which overlaps my passion for writing about women’s issues.

But, oh Lordy, help me. I can’t seem to pin down anything I’m interested in on a consistent basis. I get FOMO. I know it’s not good for a writing career to be a Jill-of-all-trades writer.

After four years of writing, I do feel like I’m niching down more, but I still need to work on this.

Writing for the money

As I said, being niched is essential for writing if you want to make it a career. But, instead of being niched, I’ve instead spread myself thin on all kinds of paid platforms; Quora, NewsBreak, Substack, and Medium are the biggest ones.

My biggest winners for earning an income are Medium and NewsBreak. So I chased the money. It was glorious for a few short months, getting a four-figure monthly income. But I was stressed and so unhappy. I’d pulled myself in so many directions, and my articles felt hollow.

It sounds weird to say this, but writing for an income doesn’t work well for me. Sure, I’d love to someday live off of my writing. However, as a self-taught writer who happened to stumble onto a couple of platforms and made money for doing this, I don’t believe I’m yet ready for a writing career. Instead, I still need to niche down my writing instead of a money grab for all the wrong reasons.

Besides, I already have a career as an RN that has done well for me. I make good money, and it gives me the flexibility and variety I need.

Writing for a paycheck kills my soul. I get stuck in a corner — NewsBreak is a prime example — and end up writing topics for an audience I despise. As much as I’d like to keep going and getting paid well, I can’t do it anymore.

Instead, I want to look at writing again as a passion. I want to scale back down to writing about what moves me. Even as tempted as I am about jumping onto NewsBreak and writing another article about whatever riles up the natives, it breaks my heart to do this. It’s not who I am.

The only way to break this cycle is to make a concrete decision not to base my writing success on the number of dollars I make.

Maybe someday, I’ll become a career writer with a niche topic that gives me the satisfaction I desire. Until then, I’ll write only about issues that stir my passion. I’ll stick to that broad topic about women. I’ll continue to write my newsletters on Lipedema. I’ll continue on The Virago. These two platforms are good for me right now. I hope to grow from there. We’ll see what happens in the future.