Writing to Get Paid

Is it Better to Write for Money or for Artistic Expression?

I never considered myself to be one of those people who write for money. It's not something I'm entirely against but this is the kind of act that has been subjugated to many a snubbed nose. In fact the concept itself is typically considered to be insulting, degrading and shameful. According to the world at large, as writers we are supposed to be writing because we have a profound love of grammatical phrases, honing our craft and because it's what we do. It's almost as if we should hang our heads in shame for selling out and accepting a few measly dollars for the brilliant masterpieces that flow from our fingers. We should be raising the rooftops with cries of outrage at the very idea that our writing is worth less than a hundred thousand dollar advance and contract with Random House; and until we get that contract everything we write should only be for the exposure. There is a misconception floating around that there are only two types of writers; the starving artist type and the best seller type. While I agree that we should definitely strive to perfect our work as much as humanly possible and be grateful for all the exposure we get I do not believe that there's no place in between for the not so well known and the not so starving writer.

Collecting a few bucks here and there for writing articles isn't such a bad gig. It may not have me driving a brand new BMW but it does give me the right to say I've sold my work. As you can hopefully tell by now, I am one of those people who will write for money. Coming from a background in writing fiction, I've had to fight my own feelings of guilt. There are those who might consider me to be a sell out for putting my pen to paper in order to make a few dollars and that's ok, somebody's got to pay the bills. Not all of us can be Stephen Kings and Nora Roberts, some of us have to be writers who get paid.