Do
you want to know why some writers are paid lots and lots of money and
other writers write for free, every day, endlessly, and don't make a
cent?
Because a handful of writers share very valuable knowledge and lots and lots and lots of writers peddle scraps.
There is this belief that simply "writing" is a skill. That if you can put one word after another, you are a "writer." This is not true. At best, you are competent in your native tongue. You know how to take the sounds that come out of your mouth that mean things and draw their symbol form on a sheet of paper. You are not a writer.
What a Writer does is he/she shares knowledge in the form of words. People don't read because they like the look of letters. Nobody picks up a book and says, "I have to say, the way the Y comes after the A comes after the C is just superb." They say, "This writer gets me. This writer taught me something new. This story spoke to my soul."
If you want to monetize your writing ability, then you need to think less about the fact that your medium is writing and more about what value you are offering. Perfect example: I could answer this same question in a YouTube video, I could put it in a song, I could make a PowerPoint presentation with lots of funny images, or I could WRITE it on Quora. I chose to write it because I enjoy the medium and the craft, but the information is what you come for and so the information is what you care about.
If you want to monetize, start thinking about what value you are providing. Do you want to teach people something? Do you want to be known as a storyteller? Go BEYOND the words. The words are just tools. What are your words saying? What are your words offering? And once you know that (here comes the marketing side of things...) who would be willing to pay to learn that kind of stuff?
Lucrative novelists make money off their writing not because they are writers, but because they are great storytellers.
Lucrative journalists make money off their writing not because they are writers, but because they know how to capture a moment in time.
Lucrative bloggers make money off their writing not because they are writers, but because they know how to spot what's popular, what's trending.
If you want to be lucrative, ask yourself the question: What value can I provide? And if you can provide that through the craft of writing, then congrats, you're now a writer.
Because a handful of writers share very valuable knowledge and lots and lots and lots of writers peddle scraps.
There is this belief that simply "writing" is a skill. That if you can put one word after another, you are a "writer." This is not true. At best, you are competent in your native tongue. You know how to take the sounds that come out of your mouth that mean things and draw their symbol form on a sheet of paper. You are not a writer.
What a Writer does is he/she shares knowledge in the form of words. People don't read because they like the look of letters. Nobody picks up a book and says, "I have to say, the way the Y comes after the A comes after the C is just superb." They say, "This writer gets me. This writer taught me something new. This story spoke to my soul."
If you want to monetize your writing ability, then you need to think less about the fact that your medium is writing and more about what value you are offering. Perfect example: I could answer this same question in a YouTube video, I could put it in a song, I could make a PowerPoint presentation with lots of funny images, or I could WRITE it on Quora. I chose to write it because I enjoy the medium and the craft, but the information is what you come for and so the information is what you care about.
If you want to monetize, start thinking about what value you are providing. Do you want to teach people something? Do you want to be known as a storyteller? Go BEYOND the words. The words are just tools. What are your words saying? What are your words offering? And once you know that (here comes the marketing side of things...) who would be willing to pay to learn that kind of stuff?
Lucrative novelists make money off their writing not because they are writers, but because they are great storytellers.
Lucrative journalists make money off their writing not because they are writers, but because they know how to capture a moment in time.
Lucrative bloggers make money off their writing not because they are writers, but because they know how to spot what's popular, what's trending.
If you want to be lucrative, ask yourself the question: What value can I provide? And if you can provide that through the craft of writing, then congrats, you're now a writer.
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