06

Jul

Striking the Balance Between Pay and Passion

Many of us began writing because it was a passion. Possibly it started early when as a child you created wildly imaginative stories. Perhaps you wrote for a school newspaper, magazine or website. Then, as you got older, you may have decided on a career in writing, be that fiction or non fiction. You may have returned to writing after a long gap due to family and work commitments. You write because you enjoy it. However the moment you decide that you can write for profit you may find your enjoyment fades and the writing process can become a chore.

Do you still enjoy writing? If you have become a freelance writer, are you given the space and time to write on subjects you enjoy? Are you able to maintain your love of writing in the work you do? Or has your passion for writing been sapped by deadlines, the need to make money to live, and writing on subjects that rarely interest you? Your answer may be ‘yes’ to both of those questions but one may outweigh the other. If that is you then the answer is simple. Find a balance. Don’t give up on your passion for writing because the motivation has become a chore.

Consider the following three tips to help you achieve a helpful balance in your freelance writing:

Balance your time between writing for profit and writing for pleasure. If your whole week is spent writing to make money and to hit deadlines you will soon find it becomes a hard slog to get through. Take time out each day to write on what interests you. Perhaps one day a week could be spent on writing for pleasure and not profit. You may have a novel that you need to finish but the paid work has taken over your time. Your blog may not have been updated for a while. Take the time to work on these. By doing so, you will be creatively satisfied and less anxious about ignoring your beloved projects.

Set a deadline for the work you enjoy. These are personal and realistic deadlines to help you to complete the writing you are passionate about. If you don’t do this you may find the work you are doing for profit takes over your time and you lose sight of why you began writing in the first place. You have already been given deadlines for your paid work so why not make that deadline for your personal writing. You will be one step nearer to completing it despite making time for writing that pays.

Look for writing work on subjects you are enthused about. This would be the perfect combination of profit and passion. Find those topics that really get your creative juices flowing. Is there a subject that you would particularly like to cover for an article? Look online for websites which match your interests. Contact them and let them know your shared interest. It is likely you will write with a lot more vigor, enthusiasm and possibly success.

It would be terrible for yourself and the wider world if you gave up on writing because you no longer enjoy it. Recapture your writing mojo and try and maintain this healthy balance. You will possibly find that your writing and your self-esteem improves as a result.