How to Be Certain Your Writing Career Isn’t a Waste Of Time
--
I have good news and bad news.
Let’s start with the bad — your writing career might be a waste of time.
The good news — it’s probably not.
I’ve noticed a strange fear us writers tend to have. The fear of putting time and effort into something that just isn’t meant to be.
You want to grow on Medium, publish your own books, or find other ways to make a living for your writing. You don’t lack motivation.
If you knew this whole writing thing would work out, you’d attack the keyboard full force every day.
But you don’t. Why? Because of uncertainty.
Let’s just get to the point. I do know of one career-ending sign. If you don’t see this sign, you’re fine.
The Only Circumstance Where Your Writing is Destined to Fail
If you’ve never had an inkling, an itch, or a slight desire to write before stumbling across a “make a living writing,” blog post, you’ll fail.
Writing online has become one of the get rich quick schemes de jour.
Everyone’s throwing their hat in the ring now because writing looks cool and can make you serious money when done right.
This is how we end up with 100,000 blogs about “writing content,” “content marketing,” “motivation,” and “success.”
I’m one of those bloggers myself, and I try to do a good job of encouraging people while tempering their expectations at the same time.
I’ve had people request to work with me. The ones who talk solely about making a living through their writing are the ones I know aren’t cut out for it.
I once had someone call and tell me he wanted to start making six figures publishing books by next year. He had zero readers, no email list, and one failed book.
This type of “gold rush,” thinking leads to failure in every hot new industry with people looking to cash in. The same line of thinking for making a living writing applies to dropshipping on Amazon, flipping houses, starting an Etsy store, or anything else in the realm of online business.
