What No One Tells You About Being A Writer

Being a writer makes people think of those wandering along the beach, barefoot, twirling a pen in their hand. They are in tune with their surroundings, always calm and they’re days are filled with whatever the heart desires.

They’ll spend some time in their little cave where they tap away - as inspiration strikes. They’re writing room is filled with the latest trendy plants and knick-knacks. All bought with the money they made writing. 

Lies. 

Here are some realities I’ve coming across as a writer that no one told me about:

1. The joy disappears quickly. 

You start your writing project and a couple sentences in, you have no interest anymore. This, unfortunately, is the reality of every writing project I begin. A couple sentences in and I’m over it. You hear all the advice from the seasoned professionals - you have to write even without inspiration, writers write, we don’t wait for ideas we create them etc. But for some reason I never married this up with a lack of enjoyment of the craft. When you have no motivation, you have no fun. The worst part - the only way to get back the motivation is to keep writing.

2. The money is harder to find than a needle in a haystack - especially during a cost-of-living-crisis.

Writing, freelancing, publishing etc, earning money relies on people buying your product. But no one will buy your product if they don’t have money to spend. Writing is a hustle, you have to keep grovelling for money over and over again. Every product must be bigger and better, every interaction with a potential audience member needs to be engaging and meaningful, people want something that’s worth their time and you’ll lose trust as soon as you try to sell. And trust is everything.

3. You are the brand.

Every image you use, every word you write on the internet will be added to your brand. You name, your social media accounts, everything is saved and recorded. You say something once and it’s attached to your brand forever. That’s AI and meta-data and all that jargon for you.

As the brand, people want to know you. They don’t want to know your publisher or the coffee that’s on the table - they want to know your favourite things, your least favourite things, the ins and outs that make up your daily life. And if you put it out there - people will find it.

4. Building an audience is extremely hard.

There are so many people in the world, so many who want to write - but not many who want to read and buy the work of someone who is new to the writing game. Trust is important and it takes a while to gain that trust from people who don’t know you, don’t know your writing style and don’t know what words you want to say. But once you’ve found your voice and have consistency, the audience will come.

5. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Words won’t come when you need them the most. Someone will ask what your book is about and you’ll go blank. You’ll hire an editor only to find you don’t have the funds. Your proof copies will go missing right before release. Your computer will die the moment before hitting publish.

All in all, it is worth it and we do it because we love it. But sometimes, it’s just hard.

What’s something you discovered during the writing process that no one told you about?