by Eric Goudie

Created on: January 26, 2010   Last Updated: January 27, 2010

Writing as a business and writing for fun is much the same dilemma as the whole “Bacon bits or croutons on your Caesar Salad” question.

Why can’t I have both?

Writing should always be fun.  Writers write because it’s fun or, at the very least, they find writing a lot more fun than most other activities. Many people have ulterior motives for writing and one of them is financial security, but you don’t meet a lot of writers with stars in their eyes like aspiring actors, or the sleazy, cutthroat profit-at-any-cost morality of some corporate CEO’s.

For the most part writers seem to have modest needs and aren’t drawn to the limelight of celebrity and all the hang-ups it can bring – imagine John Grisham splashed across the pages of People magazine in a compromising position or Stephen King being caught up in a sex scandal.  Even the most famous writers have a lot more in common with their readers and ordinary people than the rest of the “celebrity class.”

What real writers need more than anything else is to write.  If a writer can do that and pay the bills with it, then most likely they’ll be quite happy. If they have a source of income in their lives that doesn’t take away from the time they spend writing, then they’ll also likely be quite happy.

The main difference between writing for fun and writing for money is that, when writing for fun, it’s about everything else a writer needs besides money: the need to express, to emote, to confront, to rebel. Some writers write to entertain, to assuage, to inspire or to simply inform. Some writers need the catharsis of words on paper, while others write to understand the demons without and within.  Some write for an audience, and some write for themselves.

When writing for money it’s strictly about writing for the sake of money alone.  Keyword density, SEO and the client’s peculiarities about formatting and style are all dutifully adhered to in pursuit of a monetary pay out.  When writing for money you advertise your services and seek out new business on a daily basis.  You are an entrepreneur in the fullest sense of the word, the word itself being your wares. 

Never the two shall meet?  Perhaps they will.  From time to time a client will want a piece on something you are passionate about, and once in while someone does sell that manuscript they’ve written and see a payout.

The difference between writing as a business and writing for fun is simply the addition or removal of money from the equation.

Pass the salad. 

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