With the increasing influence of e-commerce in our lives, and the opportunity of earning fast money by simply directing traffic to a product, the quality of writing seems to have lost its illustrious sheen and wonder.
Now it’s more of a gimmick, with increased focus on sensationalism and as much publicity as one can garner – for maximum hits to a website.
‘Share’, ‘Post’, ‘Like’, ‘Tag’, ‘Tweet’, ‘Trend’-spread the word and set the ball rolling.
The content is relegated to the back seat.
That’s why you probably have umpteen tips and online tutorials advising you how to make writing as your profession in a short span of time.
Guiding you about the nuances of professional, no-frill writing that might not win accolades from the literary fraternity but keep the cash boxes ringing.
But the question here is, is there a crash course on writing for passion?
Can there really be a piece that was written with no passion, but with the single-minded aim of spinning money?
What is Passion for Writing?
Writing can only be a profession if it is a passion.
At least that’s what it has been for the millions of writers in the yester-years who have wielded the power of the mighty pen to express their myriad emotions. Be it lyrical poems and ballads expressing love for their beloved, poignant tales of life with happiness and sorrows, weaving a tapestry of word or be it a strong critique voicing their opinion against the status quo.
Passion has always been the driving force that has been the source of inspiration and creativity behind the eternal creations of literature.
The earning of millions in the sale of the book or its copyright hasn’t always been the sole factor that dominated the thought process of the writer.
Every writer had to go through his share of rejections, failure and struggle to make an impression in the reader’s minds.
There was no short cut to success.
There never will be.
The sheer quality of content, command over the language, playing with words, creating magic out of them, and to top it all – transcend the barriers of place and time, and strike a chord with readers irrespective of their age, sex, social standing or religion.
That’s why an old literary work written with a lot of passion is relevant even today, and still read and cherished by readers across the world.
But is it the same for writing for profession?
Writing for Passion vis-à-vis writing for Profession
When one is writing for passion, satisfying one’s own creative self is very important.
It should satiate the writer’s inner need of creating an excellent piece of art, something unique and sublime. Writing for profession need not necessarily evoke any such feelings in the writer.
You just need to know the tricks of the trade, sprinkle in keywords, search tags and meta tags and unleash a promotional blitzkrieg. Divert traffic to your page and earn money; whether the visitors read the article in its entirety is immaterial.
Writing for profession is a planned, calculated move that has a focused commercial goal.
Writing for passion is spontaneous and emanates straight from the heart. It has no formula, no ulterior motive.
Striking a balance between the two
However, writing for passion and writing for profession are not really mutually exclusive.
A writer who writes for passion also nurtures a dream of attaining professional acclaim.
On the other hand, an individual focusing only on the commercial aspects of writing is bound to hit the roadblock if the quality of content fails to hold the attention of the readers.
The cold shoulder of a reader is a dreaded sight for the hard-working writer.
So the perfect balance lies in writing with passion. Writing with quality.
Fame and accolades will automatically follow suit.
The formula seems rather simple to me.
Blogger, entrepreneur, digital marketing consultant and recording artist. I make money online and teach others how to do the same.
"You’re such a smart boy!" were his first accolades heard. So, it’s no wonder that this phrase became the title of his business, Smart Boy Designs.