It’s a common misconception that writers are paid because they write.
But nothing could be so farther from the truth.
Take any type of writer – journalist, content writer, copywriter, novelist, script writer – these people are never paid to write.
They are paid because they do something more than just writing.
If that’s not the case all typists would be, by definition, writers.
So what makes a writer, a ‘writer’?
And if they’re not being paid to write, what are they getting paid for?
The answer is simple.
Writers are paid to THINK primarily.
When a writer sits down staring at the blank page, his work is 90% done already.
The majority of the work has already happened in his head.
If you’re a copywriter, you already have a solution to your client’s problem in your head.
If you’re a novelist, you already know what interesting plot twist is going to happen next.
If you’re a poet, you’ve already lived out the poem in your head.
All you do when ‘writing’ is just arrange your thoughts as words so people can know what your thoughts in a simple way.
So in terms of job description, you’re essentially more of a thinker than an actual writer.
Another way to put it is:
I’m not getting paid because one fine morning I decided to sit down and type away random words for 2 hours straight.
I’m getting paid because I THOUGHT of a solution for your business problem. My solution happens to be words because I'm a copywriter. And I just communicated my solution to you and your customers in the ‘form’ of writing.
And this is exactly why I get flared up when somebody asks me how much I charge per word.
If I’m able to increase your sales just by tweaking 5-7 words in your copy, I don’t want to get paid by the word. That's the fastest way for any writer to go broke.
I get paid for the results that I bring in.
You happy, me happy.
But I guess this deserves a whole another blog, so I’m just stopping this here.
Circling back to the topic, writers are people who get paid for thinking.
Writing just happens to be a medium which they find comfortable to communicate their thinking.
So if you want to write good stuff, first begin by practicing ‘thinking’.
If you want to hire a good writer, hire someone who ‘thinks’ better than the rest.
Because it’s easier to change the words you write than the way you think.
Everybody is trained to write. But only a few are good at thinking as well.
And if you ask me, thinking beats writing anytime.
That's it for today. See you in another useful blog soon!
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