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Write What You Love: Don’t Let Money Drive You
“Really, how that wretched book ever come to be written, I don’t know!… I was driven desperately by the desire, indeed the necessity, to write another book and make some money… I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you are writing and aren’t writing particularly well.” Agatha Christie
The drive for financial gain is very seductive when you are working hard.
When you are starting out as a writer, thinking of what money you could earn from your labours is only natural. Indeed, it may be what is motivating you to carry on. But money is the last thing you should be thinking of at this early stage.
Being a writer is the most vague and intangible of occupations, because it is endless hours of work on a vague idea that, once put into solid words, is never guaranteed to earn your pay.
Even when you manage to publish something, it’s no guarantee all future works will follow the same pattern. Each writing project is a constant struggle. Adding the pressure of money to your writing has the danger of hindering progress. When you write with money in mind, your creativity is impaired by the financial desire; you think only of what is most likely to give you money, not what will help improve your writing.