Income to debt ratio. Monthly expenditure. Investment portfolio. if you’re anything like me, these phrases instantly make you shy away, change the topic, and maybe even leave the room. I am not what you would call financially savvy: I earn an amount of money each month and try to spend less than that amount. That is about it for financial planning in my life.

And besides, isn’t talking about money this early on a little premature? We are only just getting started! Maybe you haven’t written anything yet, haven’t set up your website, haven’t even applied for your first job. Aren’t there a lot of other things to worry about right now, without adding money to the list?

Unfortunately, as much as it pains me, money is part of this whole creative journey. There are many reasons to make a change into the world of freelance writing, and most of them are not financially motivated, but when discussing career paths, one can’t discount money entirely. It is, after all, the reason we work in the first place.

One of the main goals of becoming a freelancer is to make money from writing, and make enough to live off. That means thinking about that bottom line, and defining what exactly it is. How much do you need to live, how much do you need to save, and what do you need to earn to consider freelance writing a full time career?

Looking at the numbers

Looking into your finances can be scary, especially if you work an irregular shift pattern like me, and don’t really keep track of how much you earn at different times of the year. But as uncomfortable as it can be to add up your expenditures and keep track of your outgoing and incoming amounts, it is an important step to tackle if you are seriously considering freelancing as your future money earner.

I did some basic number crunching, looking at my average earnings this year, and came out with a rough number for what I generally end up with each month. Let’s call that number X$.

Now, hold your horses. We are not expecting to earn that same amount when we are starting out, most likely not even close, but it’s important to understand what you are hoping to replicate financially with this career change. Having that specific X$ number sets a financial goal to work towards, and also give you a defined point when you can officially call your freelancing career “successful”.

What work is out there?

Job boards are a tried and tested way of finding freelancing work. Even if you are not ready to apply for work right now, having a search of job boards can give you an idea of how much certain jobs are offering, different price points for different skill levels, and how much people are currently making doing the work that you hope you do.

Some good job board to check out are:

For example: one job on Upwork is currently offering $30 for 1000 words, and is looking for 5 x 1000 word articles a week. That works out to $300 every two weeks for 10 different articles. (We get paid bi-weekly in Canada, so I do most of my financial calculations in two week intervals). When you do the math, that is quite a lot of work for not that much money, when on the surface $30 for a piece of work sounds great (especially if that’s in US Dollars, not CAD- every little helps).

The more experience you have, the more you will understand what clients are looking for, and what clients will be worth your time. With more experience you will learn to write quicker and more efficiently, and you might eventually be able to write 5 articles in one day, making $150 a day a much more reasonable and worthwhile paycheck than $150 a week. Also, once you have a client base and a name for yourself, you can start charging more for your work, and taking on larger, better paying contracts. You can move away from the job boards and start attracting clients yourself, which always leads to better paying work, and the promise of repeat business. You also don’t have to write for just one client. Most freelancers have multiple client pieces on the go at once, allowing you to generate a more reasonable income from these smaller jobs.

Right now, you might not think you’re ready to be applying for jobs. Maybe you don’t have a portfolio ready, or you need to update your CV from 15 years ago. But even if that is the case, looking at and staying informed on current job postings gives you an idea of the opportunities available to you. It can show you that the work you’re looking for is out there. Freelance writing is a real profession and people are currently making money doing the work that you want to do.

A note on Creating for money

I have long believed that creating art with the primary goal of making money creates bad art. Make Good Art. That is and should be, the goal when an artist sits down to a canvas or a musician picks up a guitar. And the same is true for the writer. Make Good Art. Write Good Words. Create something that wasn’t there before, that only you could create. Otherwise, why are you doing it?

But here in lies the dilemma. The goal of becoming a full-time freelance writer inherently includes writing for money. And that writing, whilst you can and should ensure it’s good, will not always be exactly what you want to create artistically.

Artistically, when I’m not getting paid, I write fiction. I write fantasy nonsense about the power of home, about anti-hero’s and the dangers of isolation in a world that forces people together. I write novels and short stories, science fiction and horror, dragons and demi-gods. But for now, as the aforementioned epic fantasy trilogy is not currently complete, and not close to being so, there is no one currently willing to pay money for it.

So what are the other options? Write about the top 5 boardgames of 2022? or the best ski jackets under $100? Proofread manuscripts and edit resumes. These things, though not exactly what my inner artist might want to be creating, are at least things that interest me, and if I can get paid to write something, isn’t that better than not getting paid to write at all?

Sure, you could do a Stephen King and publish your first novel whilst working full-time at the mill, have it be an international success and keep going up from there… but unfortunately, there is only one Stephen King in this world, and I ain’t him.

A lot of writers work in and around the industry before “making it” in any sense of the word. Neil Gaiman was a journalist before he wrote Good Omens, as was Terry Pratchett. Patrick Rothfuss apparently took 15 years to write The Name Of The Wind whilst teaching and studying English, and we all know how long it took Tolkien to complete his artistic vision.

So the question is this: if it’s going to take 15 years for you to have the artistic and creative freedom to get paid to write whatever you want, what do you want to be doing in the meantime? Do you want to keep doing what you’re doing, and create your art on the side? Or do you want to start writing for a living and earn money from your craft, even if that craft is not exactly what your authorly heart desires?

Work is unfortunately a part of life, and no matter what you do, you have to put a certain amount of work into something every day that pays the bills, puts food on the table and puts gas in the car. So if you have to do be doing something, why not make that thing writing, in whatever form it can be?

Even if you’re not making great art with every keystroke, even if you’re writing on a topic that doesn’t truly inspire you, doesn’t make the author inside you leap with excitement, at least you will be enjoying what you do, and taking a purposeful step closer to the ultimate goal of being a professional, full-time, paid writer.