For the Money

A few weeks ago a reader posted a comment to something I said that intoned that if I was not in writing for the love of writing, if I was only in it for the money then I was writing for the wrong reason. I think this is a silly point of view and what's worse, I hear it constantly.

What's wrong with being in something for the money. I am at my present job, as a business analyst for an industrial cleaning company for the money. Never throughout my life did I think I wanted to work for a company that picked up waste and cleaned out refineries. I fell into it and now I do it just for the money. I don't love doing it, yet I'm good at it.

I want to make money off of my writing. Do I write for fun? Sure, its a hobby, but if there was no way to make money off of it I wouldn't do it. Then there's the argument that writers write to tell a story and that's the compelling reason they write. Thanks Captain Obvious. But by telling that story they want to make money. They want to tell (and sell) that story to as many people as possible, that's the impetus behind their writing.

Nothing is wrong with capitalism or trying to make a buck, hell that's what makes this country so great, so it always irritates me when people say they write cause its in their soul and they'd do it even if they didn't make any money. I say bologna!