Writing Should Never Be Like Brain Surgery
Why money is a horrible motive
In the fall of 2016, I’m sitting at the corner table of a small coffee shop in the heart of Arlington, VA.
It’s about 10 am, most of the morning crowd has shuffled out, and I’ve been sipping the same small, black coffee since I first got there at 7. Breakfast would’ve been nice, or maybe something a bit more fitting for the Arlington vibe (like a latte), but quitting your job on a whim to chase your dream of being a paid writer has its drawbacks.
I was on my sixth 500-word article of the day. At $25 a pop, it wasn’t a gig I was particularly thrilled about, nevertheless $150 in one day was enough to survive. Not quite the $130,000 salary I had flushed down the toilet just a few months prior. But hey, I was living my dream!
Normally, a 500-word article would be child’s play. I’d written at least 50 for this particular client in the last several weeks, but this morning the work felt like torture. I drudged my way through the final 100 words, submitted the finished product, and told the guy we could close the contract.
I was done writing crap I hated…or so I thought.
For a brief period of time, I did awesomely. I got back into full-time engineering work and wrote on the side for fun. But less than…
