Why are you writing?

Asking a writer why she or he likes to write may appear, on the surface, to be similar to the question, 'why do people breath?'. But let's face reality. While most of us do, in fact, love to write, we also have ulterior motives for doing so.

I realized mine several months ago during a conversation with my sister who is also a writer. I was giving her an update on the novel I was working on at the time and talking about how I hoped to get an agent who could sell my book.

My sister, who is one of these people who tends to walk on a different path from the rest of the world anyway, looked at me like I had suddenly twisted my head around on my body, spit up green vomit, and spat out a variety of offensive curse words. Then she ask, "why would you want to sell your novel?".

Why? To see my name in print. To have book signings. To send a copy to my tenth grade English teacher who told me I couldn't write. To make money.

My sister just shrugged her shoulders and said she didn't care about any of those things, especially making money. She just loved to write.

It was then that it hit me. Besides confirming my sister is a bit crazy, I realized that as much as I love to write, I do so with the intent to make money. I don't usually write just to write. I write with the desire to turn my passion for writing into a career.

When I came to that realization, I suddenly saw my writing priorities in a whole new light. While I do want to have a book published one day, trying to do so doesn't meet my immediate need to pay the bills. Neither does writing for magazines (at least for me).

That's when I turned to copywriting. I had toyed with the idea for a while. Having a business degree with an emphasis in Marketing seemed to give me some qualifications. And being able to write a variety of different things helped as well. But what's helped me the most in become successful has been to look at others who are successful. You can glean a lot of knowledge from those folks.

If any of you have the same money making motives, here are a few sites I've found helpful:

One person I find very informative is Tiffany Dow. Check out her Squidoo The Art of Becoming an Information Entrepreneur. She has free info on this site as well as links to some of her e-books. Tiff was a very successful copywriter on elance (I checked her out) and she really knows her stuff.

Also, if any of you are interested in trying your hand at copywriting, check out Elance or Guru. These are bid sites which help newbies to get their feet wet and also check out copywriting. It's not for everyone.

My suggestion is to go with the free memberships at first. Bid on a copy of jobs and see what you think of the process. But beware, there are some employers on these sites looking for writing....cheap. Although you're getting experience, value your work. Don't way underbid a project just to get a job. You'll probably regret it.

Good luck!