How to Make a Living as a Writer

> I root for Horse Laws and grow sad when a state bucks them.

Another cute one!

But this patchwork of low paid freelance work is the most reasonable way to make it sustainable for most people.

This is a negative comment. The author is someone who is clearly struggling, and trying to do her best to make ends meet by working multiple jobs that she makes clear she is desperately in search of. She also can't use her hands and is in chronic pain. Please, have some empathy.

They will never replace lived experience, in the same way McDonalds will never replace a meal made by mom.

My prediction is that all "anonymous" writing will be replaced by AI. By anonymous, I mean: copywriting, corporate-style neutral writing, product descriptions, news summaries, headlines, and so on. Anything where the identity of the author is unknown or not important.

However, writers that lean into their identity and inject their personality into the writing, use video, and generally have a public brand will probably do fine. The fact is: we live in a video world now, so unless you can latch onto the brand of a larger entity to grow your audience, you're probably going to need to be on camera.

(This is basically how many writers are successful on Substack.)

Writers will also continue to be needed in fields where there is zero tolerance for errors (say, technical writers at complex manufacturing companies.)

> Virtually all the jobs mentioned can already be replaced with AI for a fraction of the cost.

I’m not so sure. First, they are already paying pennies to the writers. Second, who’s gonna write the prompt? The bosses certainly not, so they would hire prompters. Now, you cannot simply hire a prompter with zero experience in copywriting or editing; these people would not accept less than pennies for their work. So you just go ahead and hire people with writing experience. It’s easier.

Not everything needs to be about AI. Not everything should be.

I concur. … Not sure where, but empathy stopped me before the end.

I liked the piece on corruption. You say it’s not everyone, it’s the system. I think it might be the culture, not the system? It has become the culture of the country to think that way. This is something I’m often thinking about, how can this be changed? How can a leader say “we as a country have to change. We need to change our culture, think of corruption as illegal and destructive” , and get the citizens on board with it. Because, with my, unfortunately limited, knowledge about Africa, I have understood that in many countries a government employee can’t make a living of their salary. The position is a position enabling taking bribes, and that’s what’s putting food on the table. When it’s that ingrained, how is a transformation possible? Where to start?

One idea I’ve had, is transformation via a system similar to corruption, but regulated. If you go to a government office, you don’t pay a bribe, but you pay some kind of tip to the representative. And that tip is listed on a “menu” and is reported to the employer, and a small tax is paid. The amounts are set at a level around the commonly known bribe paid today.

Then, year by year, those tips are reduced (or stay the same, not adjusted for inflation), while the salary is increased. This is possible due to the small tip tax.

Doing this while information campaigns are running on TV, internet, schools, and so on, continuously.

Let’s say this is a 20 year project, with a clear goal of a higher level of civilization, imprinting in people that this good and this will make life better for you, your children and grandchildren.

I hope that your country will be able to fix the problem.

You’re a good writer and I enjoyed this article:

https://www.rxjourney.net/the-problem-with-our-country