Getting paid

I grew up in public housing and then a trailer park (insert cliche), so I have always been focused on earning a living - not money hungry, but just making sure everybody has what they need along with a roof over our heads and plenty to eat. I have always loved writing whether crafting stories or laying out how to do something, but anything paying money always took precedence. When I was a teenager, I created a family newsletter and wrote funny stories about everybody, but I only worked on it after mowing yards, washing cars or whatever paid that day. In my thirties, I landed quite a few magazine article gigs, a couple books and ultimately a weekly newsletter - it was all technology focused but I enjoyed crafting the 1000-2000 words a week and releasing it to the world and it actually paid real money so it was okay to work on it. Once that was complete, I drifted away from the daily discipline although brief stretches of writing on a blog. I am finally trying to return to a regular routine and killing that inner voice that keeps criticizing me for doing something frivolous that is costing money instead of making it.