Member-only story

Want to Make Writing Your Job?

Then Make Writing Your Job!

Andy Spears
2 min readJan 9, 2022

Yes, there are a ton of stories about how writer so-and-so earned so much money this past month on Medium. Then, there are the stories about how being a writer means working from home or a coffeehouse or the beach. Then there are the stories about how people are struggling to make it as a writer. I mean, they’ve written one or two brilliant pieces of content and don’t understand why they’re not (yet) living a life of luxury.

Here’s the deal: Writing is hard. It’s work. It’s hard work.

Yes, passive income is awesome. It can liberate you to work on projects you love. It can mean money comes in even when you take a week off to recharge. But you have to EARN that passive income. That means doing the work. If you want to earn passive income from writing, you have to be writing. Always. If you’re not writing, you should be reading and absorbing good writing. This will inevitably make you a better writer.

As Kiran K-Star notes:

For example, if you are publishing one story daily and spend the rest of your time talking about poor stats and low income, why not write another story and provide more and more valuable content to the reader.

I Think I Know Why 90% Of Freelance Writers Earn Less Than $100 A Month | by Kiran K-Star | Write To Inspire | Dec, 2021 | Medium

Do you want to be in the 5–10% of Medium writers who earn more than $100 a month? If yes, are you willing to do the work it takes to get there?

And are you willing to explore other avenues of writing so you can generate a decent passive income? Medium CAN be a source of passive income that works for you — or, it can even be your primary source of income. IF you put the time and effort in.

Here’s an example of just doing it. A few days ago, I read about a fiction site called Simily. I thought about it for a bit, then I joined and put up my first story. I’m going to see how it goes — but, the most important part — I’m doing it! Here’s my first story there:

Escalator Down for Repair — Simily

So, if you want to make writing your full-time job, then make writing your full-time job. Spend 40 hours a week. Get a schedule. Write every day. Read every day. Plan. And yes, when you have that idea for a story, don’t just talk about it. Write it down. Get it right. And publish it.

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

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Andy Spears
Andy Spears

Written by Andy Spears

Writer and policy advocate living in Nashville, TN —Public Policy Ph.D. — writes on education policy, consumer affairs, and more . . .

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