Is Money the Only Reason You Write?
Who’s to blame for all these articles about how to make a buck?
I only joined Medium a few months ago, but we’re quickly developing a love-hate relationship. I love being able to share my writing and receive feedback from supportive writers. I also love reading about travel, dating, and spirituality and connecting with like-minded writers thinkers.
At the same time, I hate the number of articles published every day recounting how you made x amount of money writing on Medium or for some other website. Congratulations, but I do not care. I hate that so many top writers only seem to write about writing. I hate that so many people are willing to sell out and only write about what makes money instead of what they are passionate about or want to share with the world.
I am usually not one to judge, but I think this scenario represents everything that is wrong with the world. Okay, that’s a little dramatic, but it shows how many people value money over passion, and what I find most frustrating is that nobody seems to mind. I’m not sure if I should blame the writers or the readers for this situation, or perhaps Medium itself. Care to comment?
The writers
Listen, I get it. Everyone is trying to make a living, and stories about how to write seem to get the most views and engagement, therefore making the most earnings. So it’s no surprise that many smart writers have decided to write about writing. But for all those writers, I have a few questions that I feel the need to ask:
- Do you enjoy writing these stories every day? Or does it feel like a chore? Does the only enjoyment you feel come from seeing your payout each month? If so, I don’t see how this is any different than working a job you don’t enjoy just for the paycheck.
- What are you truly passionate about? Do you even remember? Okay, you probably remember, but do you put any time into developing or sharing those passions? Because there are probably a lot of people who are passionate about that too, who you are not helping or connecting with by writing about your writing.
- Do you really believe you’re helping people or making the world better? Some of you have more than likely convinced yourselves that you do. And yeah, you probably guided some new writer to make a buck or two. But is teaching others how to sell their soul for the promise of money really the message you want to send to the world?
The readers
Now, I’m trying to understand why these dumb articles about writing for money are by far the most read. Some of them are not even offering good advice. Sure they tell you websites that pay for articles, but they fail to mention the number of submissions those websites receive or the infinitesimal chances that your article will actually be chosen and published.
Obviously, part of the reason for the popularity of these articles is that most readers want to make money and have no idea how. But I would argue that reading these articles helps the writer make money, much more than it helps the reader make money.
Becoming a good writer requires passion for your subject and experience writing. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. If you only read articles about making money, and then try to write the same thing with no actual experience doing so, that does not make you a good writer. It makes you a con artist and a sell-out. And I’d be curious to know, does it make you that much money?
I don’t know why people would choose to read your article over the gazillion others sharing essentially the same information. But I guess that’s all anyone cares about anymore. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like the new writers only want to read about how to make money, and the experienced writers… don’t read at all? I hope this isn’t true, but I just don’t understand why great stories about travel, or self-improvement, or hilarious dating disasters seem to get a pathetic number of views these days.
Should I blame Medium?
As a newbie myself, I don’t know exactly what changed to shift this platform into a compilation of stories on how to make money writing. I know that Medium stopped sponsoring some publications, which perhaps lead to their demise.
When I searched for travel publications, they mostly fell into two categories: Big pubs with a massive following that haven’t published anything in years, or tiny new ones with a few hundred followers or less. So what happened? I’m grateful for the writers creating these new publications, like Globetrotters and Taking Off, but they are still fairly small and their stories seem to get far fewer claps and comments than they deserve.
Is it the Medium algorithm? Maybe. I like blaming things on computers instead of people, so I’d like to believe that this is the problem, but I think we can all agree that people play a role.
For the haters
I hate being a hater, so this is not at all typical of what I choose to write. But I felt called to write it for 2 reasons. First, to try to get a better understanding of what the actual fuck is going on. Second, I’d love to take this opportunity to encourage both writers and readers to explore your passions by writing and reading about what you love!
For all the haters who hate this article, let me try to predict and address your concerns. Yes, I too would love to make money writing. To be honest, I originally signed up for Medium in hopes of promoting my book. However, I would like to point out that when I realized the audience here is all wrong for my book, I stuck around because I truly enjoy writing.
Also, please note that my book is about dating and women’s empowerment, and my reason for writing it was because I’m truly passionate about helping young women navigate this crazy world of online dating by loving themselves first. Yes, it would be great to make some money, but my purpose was first and foremost to share my passion and help other humans.
Finally, I realize I’m making some major generalizations here. Of course, there are plenty of top writers who write about topics other than making money. And to those writers, I’d like to say thank you! But still, it is undeniable that there is a major excess of articles about making money, and I find it to be a soul-crushing reality. But it’s not my soul that is being crushed! It’s the writers who have sold their soul to the devil to make a buck, as well as the poor readers who are being given false hope that their dream of getting rich by writing might come true.
So for all the brave souls who still write about what they love, please tell me, is there still hope? Should I stick around and keep reading and writing about what I love? Will you?