Writing Is the Future
I read a book on capitalism. It was fascinating because way the author describes capitalism is trust in the future. Capitalism works on credit. If I loan you money to start your business, I trust you’ll produce something of value to repay me.
Writing is trust in the future, but writing isn’t a business. Publishing is a business, but not necessarily writing. You can write for yourself without spending a dime. No money earned to be reinvested in the economy. But that’s often how we define “value”, right? If something earns money? If your house goes up in value, you’ll have more money when you sell it. If you provide a specialized service, you charge more because what you offer has value.
But we often don’t think of books or stories as having any value until they’re published. Selling copies. We say our goal is to touch readers, but how do we determine if we’ve succeeded? Sales data. Numbers. Money earned.
But writing is valuable. Just as other non-tangible things in our lives. Family. Community. Connection. Try as our society may, we still can’t actually put a price on those. That’s the same with writing. You may make a million dollars on your writing or you may not. But whether you do or don’t, your writing has value.
Because you trust in the future. You trust your readers—whomever they may be—will read your story when you’re finished. Here’s to the future!