Successful Writing Is Not Always Lucrative
Writers write even when they do not make piles of money
Medium is a major source of income for many writers. To them, I say more power to you. I have a day job, I also have a day job that I cannot leave. So, I write when I can. I am also a content creator in other venues. I write every day but I do not publish to Medium every day and am about to self-publish my fourth book. A terrible marketer, this is one reason I am not more successful.
Like many writers on Medium, I do not make much money. My writing is never curated; not once that I know of in the almost three years I have been on the platform. So I do get a kick out of reading those who will boast of their income on Medium. I even mocked it a few times — “I had a wait a whole ten minutes before I made my first million on Medium.”
There are more reasons to write than just for money
There is more to writing than making money. For those who write for money, that is your job and it is not only important for you to do it, it is important for me to help you do it. I would love to make more than my one to five dollars a month but that is not why I write. I write to write, I also write for the persons, whomever they may be, who will be positively affected by my writing. This means the money is not as important as someone affected by an article.
Does your writing affect others, even one other, even if you do not make much money doing it? It is successful.
Writing that touches others
One of the great influencers in the world of horror writing is H.P. Lovecraft who did not die a rich man. As a New Englander, his works are great enjoyment for several reasons. For example, much of his writing takes place not only in New England but in locations places that one either can visit or fictional places that never existed but their location does.
If you drive the I-91 corridor in Western Massachusetts and you are a fan of Lovecraft, you will quickly see family names similar to those in The Dunwich Horror. The Whateley and Hoadley families look quite similar to Whately and Hadley, Massachusetts. The story takes place roughly around this area, west of the fictional Aylesbury Pike in “North Central Massachusetts.”
In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, New Englanders will be surrounded by the settings from Providence, Rhode Island to Salem, Massachusetts. You cannot visit the fictional places but you can stand in the locations where they would be such as not far from Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University and the Roger Williams National Memorial in Downtown Providence, RI., on Prospect St.
Lovecraft was an atheist but he understood if we live in a world where there is an infinite amount of good then you can be assured there will also be an infinite amount of evil.
In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, a powerful theme is we have the freedom to do anything we want but some things should just not be done. What a powerful message for our time especially when despite questions about the source of the virus, no one has denied that there is such a thing as “gain of function research” designed for experimental purposes to make viruses more contagious.
Your writing affects others in ways you will never know
One of my favorite stories is Leaving on the Wind by a writer named Jim Finley. All I know about the author is his name. Every time I read the story, I feel like I am in the impending ghost town of Judd, Texas. The story is a drama of living in the past of a town that once was. Now it is more a place for tumbleweeds. A drought dried up not only the local sources of water but life in the town as well.
I consider it one of the best short stories I ever read because Finley is so skilled in putting the reader into Judd, Texas. He surrounds me with dusty streets, dry river beds and, of course, tumbleweeds blown with the dust by the wind through the no longer thriving downtown. I keep the original magazine in my bookcase making sure nothing happens to it.
Published in Other Voices #8 from 1988 and no longer in print, it is the only copy of Leaving on the Wind I can actually pick up and read. The story now is over thirty years old yet it is a favorite. Did it become a best seller? I don’t think so. I am sure some readers would put in their class of loved writing such as A Clean Well-Lit Place by Hemingway, Torch Song by John Cheever, or A Hint of an Explanation by Graham Greene.”
Did Jim Finley make thousands of dollars from this story? I doubt it, in fact, published in a literary magazine, I am sure he only got a few copies of that 1988 edition of Other Voices for his trouble. However, it had a tremendous effect on this writer.
My point is writers write. Some writers make lots of money. Others die virtually penniless but they all affect their readers. Some affect lots of readers and some affect a few. Others only affect their readers posthumously. People read them because they fell in love with the writing.
I do not make much money on Medium which contrary to the headlines here makes me a member of the majority. I know that my writing touches people even if only one person finds meaning in my words and gives me a reason to continue.
If you are a writer here on Medium, your front page will be filled with lots of the “I started writing on Medium and now I own my own castle in Wales.” There will be others who will read your writing and will be touched deeply and positively by it. You will never encounter them. Remember, every minute there are thousands of stories and articles uploaded on this platform. If you get one read in one week then out of the thousands of opportunities for people to read your writing someone chose to read you.
If you are not a writer but a reader on this platform. You have come to a place that offers some truly great news, opinion, entertainment, and even poetry. Consider this an alternative source of news here.
Do not let the top writers’ boasting discourage you. I am sure Jim Finley has no idea how much I enjoyed his story Leaving on the Wind unless he reads this. I cherish the piece enough to ensure that I never lose my 1988 copy of Other Voices #8, ever.