I Made $373.16 from Writing This Year
By: Emily Wilcox
Tags: Writing, Writing Tips, Money, Business, Freelance

I Write For Me

I’m selfish.

I write what I love to write, first and foremost. Sure, I’ve freelanced in the past and written about pallet-racking, about Welsh eateries, about transportation around Greece. I’ve written for others — free and paid — and I’ve written things that I was not invested in at all. I’ve also written essays and dissertations and research projects, things that I wouldn’t say I was enjoying but things I knew were imperative to a bigger goal. And all of this has simply served to illuminate what it is that I truly desire: to write for me.

Don’t get me wrong, all I ever want to do is help people. I mean it. My mission statement in life is to be a good writer and good person. I want people to feel things from my writing, I want their lives to glimmer a little brighter, their hearts to flutter, their fingertips to tingle with inspiration. I want to bring a little light to their world, crisper pages to their story. I want to ink a smile right onto their beautiful, beaming faces. Everything we do as a species is in aid of improving existence for one another. But also; for ourselves, too. Which I guess is why I’ve so selfishly decided to do so only through the things that I love to write, to read.

And not just in terms of genre. Sure, I will always prefer to write fiction. But I also love self-expression, personal essays, relaying real life experiences and anecdotes. Within that, my favourite themes to cover are the unconventional, surrealist, interdimensional, impossible, abstract, metaphysical, odd, mind-bending notions such as multiverses and anthropomorphism and alternate realities and time and universal laws and the full, unlocked potential of our human mind. I love surpassing any “typical” human concepts and beelining straight for the weird stuff.

Yeah, I want to learn productivity. I want to develop my self-awareness. I want to be a grown up with good money management skills and beneficially structured activities. But I also know I love finding the most eclectic and niche ways of doing so to arrive there. I won’t simply write about 5 Ways to Improve Your Daily Habits. Instead, I’ll personify each habit, give it an identity, detail a day in it’s lifetime, let it fall in love, tear that love apart, watch as it’s coming of age story unfolds there on the page. I’ll get the reader to immerse themselves in an alternate version of themselves’ life and imagine how they do things. I’ll get them to chat to their reflection and discuss where things are going wrong. I’ll send them to the supermarket and envision what their habits would typically purchase. I don’t know why. That’s just what I do. How to Evict Your Dingy Habits from the Two Bed Flat of Your Mind.

And I think this is where I fall short a lot of the time, when it comes to views and reads and relatability. Because I don’t make it easy. I reference biscuits too much, Robert Pattinson too much, a supermarket Big Shop™ too much. But honestly, I’m reluctant to let go of my things. I em-bellish way too loudly and that can turn people away. I get weird, when most people are sick of life’s weirdness and are just seeking a little normality. I get childish, when all people want is a little reassurance from a couple grown-ups who know what they’re talking about.

If I want to make a little more money off my writing, I need to be a little less whimsical and a little more practical. I need to figure out how to strike that balance.