Please Stop Calling Writing Your ‘Side Hustle’
It’s insulting to those who have dedicated their professional lives to the craft
Picture this: you’re at an important conference for writers. You’re chatting with seasoned experts that have published books and magazine articles, learning valuable information about the creative and business side of the craft.
Suddenly, an out-of-breath guy bursts into the room. Everyone just stares at him.
“Hi, are you a writer?” someone asks him.
“No, heavens. It’s just one of my side hustles,” says the flustered man. “I’m a financial advisor. So, anyways, who can I talk to here about SEO? I need to get my online views up.”
Okay, side hustle guy. We get it. You already have a successful 9–5 job in law or marketing or tech or medicine or some other important industry. Now you’ve decided to make writing your “side hustle.”
While the whole hustle culture thing is a bit much (it glamorizes being overworked), “side hustle” writers in particular annoy me. These are professionals that talk about writing like its the same as delivering pizza after hours. No offence to pizza drivers, they do important work — and I always tip them well. But delivering a pizza is not the same as writing.
Nor is being an Uber driver, collecting scrap metal for cash, or walking dogs. While these can all make you money on the side, you don’t need a college diploma or much experience to do them.
Don’t expect to make money from writing overnight
Writing, on the other hand, is a skill that takes years to cultivate. It’s not something you can just jump into and expect to start racking up cash. Unless you happen to be especially talented, or know some important people in publishing, you need to grind. It’s a full-time effort to properly hone the craft, while attracting decent clients.
The truth is that a viable writing career requires a lot of trial and error, negative feedback, and outright rejection. I have worked with editors/bosses (and clients) who weren’t afraid to tell me my copy wasn’t good enough, and I accepted all feedback until it was. Even if you have a natural way with words, you’ll still need to put in real effort before you can start making the money that you’re told you can make in the first month.
To be a good writer, you need to be versatile, while mastering a range of voices for different audiences. You need to think like a writer, and a reader. It’s more than just writing now — if you want to appease clients, you also need to understand keywords, authority links, and proper formatting. You need to cross-reference your research for accuracy, and talk to experts when needed. There are also tight deadlines, and edits. Writing is not just a leisurely activity while sitting poolside at the cottage.
Writing for money is an undertaking, it’s not something that just anyone can do in their spare time. Well, maybe you can. But calling it a “side hustle” cheapens the art of writing in my opinion. Would you take legal advice from someone who is a paralegal “on the side”? No thanks.
Perhaps you do have the writing chops to become a professional writer, and you can finally quit your low-paying retail job. If you’ve already achieved a good income from writing on the side, then I salute you. You’re likely in the minority.
However, in the meantime, please stop referring to paid writing as just your “side hustle.” You’re either a writer, or you’re not.
What are your thoughts on the subject?