Money, Impact, or Expression: What Motivates You to Write?

Photo by Mathieu Stern on Unsplash

Lately I’ve seen so many writers on social media fretting about sales, wondering when they’ll be able to write full time and make a living from it. They may have written one book, or several, but they seem tormented by the fact that they aren’t seeing “success” like they envisioned.  

This mostly is true of indie writers, but a fair number of trad-pubbed or wanna-be trad-pubbed writers seem to think that earning a full time living from your writing is a norm, or at least a strong possibility, and they feel discouraged they’re not measuring up. 

Let’s have a reality check for a moment: earning a living as a full-time writer has always been rare. Even more so if you write fiction (I’m really talking about book writers here, not freelance writers).  

That’s not a bad thing, in my view.  

It may be many writers’ dream. It is certainly more possible in this era of self-publishing than ever before, if you are willing to write a prodigious amount and learn to market your work well. But these writers will admit it takes work – churning out multiple books per year, and focusing on your writing as a business.  

So, it is doable – but is it for you?  

It’s easy to get discouraged or envious of others when we haven‘t fully figured out what we truly want for ourselves.  

I was reading Bill Burnett and Dave Evans’ book Designing Your New Work Life, and love their idea that although we often focus on the dichotomy between Money and Meaning, it’s more nuanced than that. They talk about 3 ways in which we can measure the work we do: 

Money – the amount we earn from our endeavors 

Impact – the impact our work has on others  

Expression – the opportunities for creativity and self-expression our work gives us 

They call this the Maker Mix. The idea is to think about what your ideal mix of these would be. To consciously choose the balance between them. Then they ask you to set that mix on a level from 1-100 for each (approximately). Think about it like the dial on a radio, or columns like this:

Okay, I know you’re probably thinking – I want all 3!  At 100%!  In this example, I’m fine with earning less money – my focus is first on Expression, then Impact.

Your levels will determine what you write, and how focused you are on putting your work into the marketplace. Someone who wants a major Impact but doesn’t care as much about Money or Expression will be focused on maybe writing about climate change or other big issues. Someone who is focused on Money will figure out that they can earn a lot writing and self-publishing genre fiction like romance or paranormal fiction or erotica. Their next highest level may be Expression, and their Impact may be lower – their focus is on entertaining their readers, not changing the world.

The point is, there is no right or wrong answer here. There is only the mix that’s right for you. Comparing yourself against someone who clearly has a different Maker Mix leads to unhappiness. Evans and Burnett give the example of trying to play tennis by the rules of golf. Not going to work very well!

Understanding your Maker Mix at this current point of your career can have a profound impact on where you focus your energies. It clarifies and galvanizes the choices you make each day: do you write literary or genre fiction? Memoir? Biography? History? Current Events? Write for kids or adults? Write to entertain? Write to help people understand the human condition? Write to educate or empower?

I say “at this current point” because your Maker Mix can change. It may have to do not just with your writing but your whole life: At this moment, are you focused on making money for your family?  Having impact in your community? Or on your creative expression? If writing keeps taking a back seat to other things, is Expression at 10% right now? Do you want it to be more?  It’s unlikely that you will – or would want to – get too 100 for all of them, or even one of them, crowding the others out (although note that it is a scale of 0-100 each, not total).

When I coach writers, I always ask “What is the Point of this book?” And this goes back to the Maker’s Mix as well. Are you mainly in it for the money? To make an impact? For self-expression? What are you trying to do with this book? Why are you writing it?

Going back to our core Why is powerful. It helps orient us when we get lost in too many possibilities (or feel hemmed in by too few). It helps ground us in knowing where our heart truly lies. As I mentioned, there is no one right mix. You have to go with your gut, and see what feels right for you. This may change according to the stage of your career, or even the individual project you’re working on.   

As creatives, it’s good to check in with our values every now and then. The Maker’s Mix is a way to do that. We can re-orient and find our True North, and feel more confident that we’re moving in the right direction – the direction of our dreams.