'You get paid to write?'

Nearly every day, someone asks me what my employment is -- sometimes the same person forgets what I told him last time. I tell them that I write for a few online publications and get paid for it. "How? I want to do that too," they say. After that, somewhere between the listener and I, there is the typical ignorance: that person won't stop asking me how they can make money writing. I tell him that it's simple, but he needs to be a good writer to get paid for composing articles. Most people assume that the position is easy and freelancing is a tranquil breeze or stroll through the park. They automatically assume that I can do whatever I want when I want, yet the miss the challenge: having freedom is itself my arch-enemy.

Sure, working for yourself or having a freelancer career sounds great when you hear about it from someone else, but is it really all that easy? No; at least, it isn't for me. I really love what I do and writing is great, but there's this level of self-discipline that one must maintain to do such a job as this. Freelancing sounds easy because people take the first part of the word and assume you have the freedom to make as much money as you want whenever you feel like it. Well yeah, that's the basic idea, but you wanting to do it is not a constant. Things get redundant, writer's block is imminent, you get tired of saying so much about an app that you're reviewing, and chaos always finds its way into your workplace one way or another.

So no, folks: my work is not easy. It does pay well and there are amazing benefits, but you can't do it just because you think it's the "easiest job out there". It seems easy from a third-person perspective, doesn't it? Well yeah, so does everything else! One cannot simply pick up an old computer with hopes of making writing his career. It just doesn't work that way. You can try it if you want though.

On a side note, other times I tell people that I'm a journalist and they question the validity of my "claim". I tell them that I cover news, but if I so much as utter the word "blog", their respect for me has been lost. Apparently people have this idea that blogs are oh-so-personal and not for professionals. Almost every journalist I like to follow writes on a WordPress-based website. You could call it a blog if you want, but I prefer describing it as an "Interent-based publication".

If you meet a "blogger" or "writer", please don't ask him how he gets paid for such work; just ask him what kind of stuff he writes about and take interest if you feel so inclined. Other than that, stop interviewing us trying to find your dream job in the answer to a question -- it won't work.