5 Compelling Reasons You Shouldn’t Become A Writer
Maybe writing isn’t just for you.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
It’s one of the noises I hear while sitting on the couch with my laptop on my lap. With my legs straight, I lean my back on a pillow.
While enjoying the comfort of writing at home, I tried to imagine the effort you did to survive your 9 to 5 job.
It sucks, right?
How much more these days when uncertainty is everywhere?
If you already tried writing online before, I assume you already have an idea what you have to do to leverage your skills — better than the last time.
Before we get started, allow me to share a disclaimer.
If you aren’t willing to do hustle as a writer, if you have a mega-list of excuses not to work your butts off, you better go and find work somewhere else.
Because writing isn’t for you.
Becoming a writer entails a lot of sacrifices. A lot. You need to give up something i.e. time for family and friends for the sake of making progress towards your writing goals.
Look. If you aim for writing success that’s inclusive, you have to take a look at how the world’s A-list writers managed to achieve the status where they are now.
Do you notice their commonalities?
Successful writers write every single day. They have exercised self-discipline for a long time that they got used to writing 2,000 words on average per day.
In that case, can you imagine the effort writers have to exert to produce a series of high-quality online content per day, can’t you?
If you think becoming a writer is the easiest route to make more money online, think again. Writers’ income is based on the number of accepted posts, NOT the number of articles written.
You may think they’re just sitting down, writing a few thousand words, while staring blankly at the screen —seemingly confused.
Honestly, every writer usually takes the bigger slice of the cake. They are responsible for all website content.
One of the biggest contributions they give in a team is the ability to provide the best, unique, SEO-friendly high quality content for a content marketing strategy. The same content we see all day when we google something.
Setting aside writing, they plan out the keywords, the content images, etc. If they could have 8 arms to work on specific tasks independently, they’ll do just to make sure they miss nothing and everything runs smoothly.
Yet, if you insist, we’ll go through the 5 reasons and explain each to make sure everything is sound and clear — hoping to change your perspective as to how you see digital writers and to raise awareness of the tough life they have behind the screens.
5 compelling reasons why you shouldn’t become a writer:
- Writing for money
- Writing for personal gain
- Unwilling to get out of the comfort zone
- Inability to comprehend complex systems around writing
- Without clear writing goals (SMART)
5 Compelling Reasons You Shouldn’t Become A Writer
Seasoned writers could easily tell the future of your writing business by the way you deliver your content.
From the headlines to the first 2 paragraphs, they’ll know a writer’s career will go south.
Unless one is willing to challenge their beliefs, accept the nature of work, and possess a potentially high-income skill set, no writer can see a glint of light of success.
Do you understand what I’m trying to say?
1. Writing for money
If it’s all about the money, you rather quit without looking back. Run away, if you like.
For sure, you need to make more money to make ends meet. However, there are only a few of them who are dedicated to do their jobs.
What happens in most cases is that many writers like you starts with vigor, shows enthusiasm towards work within the month. Perhaps, two or three.
And then, you realized your writing skill isn’t enough for profitability and marketability. So, bye-bye.
Without the specific high-income skill set most clients and marketing agencies look for in an ideal writer, you won’t stand against experienced writers and native speakers (NS) alike. They won’t even bother looking at your application at all.
To survive the rat race in the writing industry, you need to find a way to standout. You have to be really good.
Either way, you’re in-charge of the website’s content. It’s your job to relay the company’s message as effectively as possible to its target audience while designing emails and other writing tasks to comply.
At the same time, they may also require you to add fun on each article. Besides, who wants to read a boring article, right?
That’s why you’re paid for!
2. Writing for personal gain
There’s no doubt a successful writer gains a lot of benefits in terms of money, power, and fame.
There are a countless number of writers who already reached the pinnacle of writing success — who were once impoverished, now living a comfortable life. All due to their undeniably impeccable writing power.
Match that with the right attitude and mindset towards the project from the beginning to the end. What a plus!
Not only will you earn more passively through writing pieces of content, but you can also build a reputation or an authority in the subject you’re writing about.
You can make money out of it, more than you could earn from a 9 to 5 job.
You can spread your message globally and let your words give warmth to others and continuously inspire and motivate people to be better and be truly happy.
There’s no doubt that writing is a powerful skill. We can create peace. We can create war right at our fingertips.
So, treat your writing as a sacred gift from God, if you will.
Why did I say so?
It’s because not everyone can do the job except those who can write. Many companies and private clients are waiting to meet you and welcome you in their team.
But here’s the catch.
The writing business is a pretty tough job.
You can’t think of anything else except for writing more to earn more money.
When you’re already at the point where you can’t think nor write a single word about writing anymore, you definitely have writer’s block — a deadly writer’s disease.
It can potentially kill your business.
3. Unwilling to get out of the comfort zone
Prolific authors often suggests self-discipline as the key to writing success. If you think you can’t do that, the writing industry isn’t for you.
The next thing is the willingness of the writer to get out from your comfort zone and confront challenges as they come to you in a calm manner.
Just like you, the majority of working writers have problems with fear of failure, leading to our self-imposed procrastination and low productivity rate.
It’s how we stand up and find ways to move forward with our heads up high. That’s the difference.
If this has been ongoing for you, listen to my advice.
It’s your choice to win or to lose against fear.
Because the only way to beat our self-imposed procrastination is to acknowledge it. And I bet you know exactly why do.
You know this isn’t a habit of a writer. If you seriously treat writing as a craft, you realize that no matter how tired you are, you can’t help but write.
One of the harshest realities a new writer faces is attracting the first few people to work with.
It would be challenging. Everything is new. You find SEO alienating and intimidating. You’re under pressure to adapt to the new world of writing to make sure you have an attractive profile.
As I said earlier, to enforce your will to succeed as a writer, you have to be prepared to hustle.
While waiting for client responses or company offers, spend time on honing your high-income skill set other than writing.
Try learning another skills. Probably something that’s useful to expand your online work opportunities. For example, digital marketing or copywriting to name a few on-demand writing offers.
Today, we have tons of online platforms that cater to free online learning, including LinkedIn Learning.
4. When you’re low-tempered, impatient, hot-headed
Though I’ve been writing professionally for 6 years, there are some things you really can’t control. It’s just impossible to have full control of everything.
So, if you aren’t the type of person who could easily adapt to the virtual/office environment, I don’t think writing is for you. It’s too fast-paced. Typically, they give more or less 24 hours to finish the article/s.
For example, some companies initially offer attractive work for you to entice you to apply. However, the atmosphere changes as soon as you’re onboard with the team. Certainly, you should leave and find a better one.
At times, funny situations happen when a client paid my whole-day work for watching YouTube videos to study the whole niche. Can you complain? No.
If you happen to work with digital marketing niche i.e. lead generation, you’ll probably end up working on the same scenario.
On the flip side, you also have to know which areas you don’t feel comfortable writing to make it clear with your clients. Therefore, they can’t force you to take on the project you’re not interested.
Writing is about assertion and action. It’s not just about how you begin or how you end the story. It’s also how you survive the midpoint crisis. If you’re stuck in the middle and can’t find a way to escape, good luck.
In other words, know your writing core strengths and weaknesses so you can narrow your clientele search. The more specific your writing services are, the higher the chances you’ll stand out.
5. Without clear writing goals (SMART)
I mentioned earlier about the need to prepare before you jump into the ocean full of sharks preying on you. Does that make any sense to you?
If we recall the previous point, we talked about how every writer understands the weight of their tasks. Paid or not. For eCommerce websites or personal blogs.
Therefore, planning realistic writing goals based on SMART plays a big role to your work organization.
Knowing the boundaries between work and free time, especially these times, will help us tremendously in terms of efficiency.
We write more for the sake of earning more income. Sadly, many writers plunged into the depths of writer’s block. Now, they couldn’t write a thing. Avoid it as much as you can.
Conclusion — So, Do You Still Want To Become A Writer?
After what I told you, does writing still ring a bell to you or do you feel a bit intimidated?
Do you still intend to become a successful writer or you go back out?
If you choose to stay, let me ask you the following questions before we end the post.
- At this point, do you know what particular writing service can you provide for your future clients — both for private individuals or agencies?
- Do you have a clear distinction between your writing strengths and weaknesses?
- Do you have a clear writing plan following the SMART formula?
Now, it’s your turn.
So, get back to work. Happy writing!
If you like this post, why not share it with your friends and family who’re struggling with writing? I appreciate it a lot. If you have something to say, feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below. 🙂
Originally published at https://mgaspary.com on January 18, 2020.
