Why Bother Being a Writer?
When the internet is full of stories about how you can’t make a living as an author and the market is flooded with them, why would anyone bother to become a writer?
When parents or other adults ask you what you want to be when you grow up, they hope the answer will be an achievable profession with health insurance. Please God, don’t let him say an artist or he’ll live in my basement for the rest of his life.
Writing can be that somewhat stable profession for some people, copywriters, and journalists can get consistent paychecks and benefits if they’re lucky, but someone who wants to write novels, short stories or poems is going to have a harder time of it.
“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”
Dorothy Parker
Should we focus on the noble pursuit of writing or realize that all careers have their faults, but at least this one feeds your soul somehow? Should we plow ahead with no intention of ever being paid a decent amount or ever reaching an audience?
That’s depressing as hell.
The creative path is open to all, but there is a price to be paid. You will have to hustle, rejection will come, your income will likely be unstable, people will not understand or respect what you do, you will have to supplement your income with other tasks, and after all of that, you may never achieve your goals.
As writers, we knew that going into it, even if we think we are the exception. We actively chose not to take the “safe and secure” path. We may have flirted with the more traditional professions, but like Michael Corleone, we keep getting pulled back in.
Back to the first question, why bother being a writer?
The only answer I know is because you have to write — it’s a compulsion.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Maya Angelou
We have to make sense of our experiences and share them with others so we will all feel less alone and perhaps ease suffering in others either through shared stories or through pure entertainment. We want to offer a reprieve from this chaotic world.
That compulsion is why we write despite the discouragements and hardships because not writing is much more painful than failing at it.
That’s my answer, what’s yours?