Writing as a job? It’s not all that great actually.

So, I’m now actually writing a little bit part-time elsewhere and am even getting paid a little bit of money for it. It might not be my real job but it is something that I am able to have a little bit of fun with and reach a much wider audience than I would do on here. However, my more ‘professional’ work has triggered far more people than anything I have ever written on here; mainly because I’m too lazy to ever write on here.

My real identity and my ‘work’ will not be revealed as part of the allure of writing on Steemit is the ability to write under an alias and remain relatively anonymous; although it would by no means be impossible to track me down if one was desperate enough to do so. Then again, some people may indeed want to, as I specialise in rather controversial expat related topics.

However, there are articles out there with my face and my real name attached to them now. In some respects this is quite a cool thing, something that I can show off to my friends and family and even put it forward to others as evidence of actually having a piece of work published; even if it is merely on a blog that isn’t your own. Then again, there are some disadvantages to such an arrangement.

Having to get your work past a blog editor and have it censored on occasion prior to publishing means that you can’t necessarily allow your thoughts to run quite as wild as you would like them to. This can be expected when writing on China related topics whilst living in China; yet you will often find yourself feeling quite surprised about what can squeeze through and what can’t.

Being forced to write under your real name isn’t so convenient either. If your views are in any controversial; your character rather than your arguments will be attacked. If you are not used to getting publicly attacked, this may come as quite a shock and you may find yourself initially worrying about the potential damage to one’s reputation. Thankfully for me, I work in a day job where it is pretty difficult for me to get myself fired, ultimately meaning I can push the boundaries a little bit more than most.

Friends that are known writers have given me a lot of encouragement and advised me not to allow criticism make one feel afraid, but to double down and attack harder. However, the reality is that as a writer, your work will create a reaction from others that can be either positive or negative; both of these are more desirable outcomes than being boringly neutral and ultimately ignored. As of one of those millennials that is sometimes a little too dependent upon receiving praise, this can be a tricky concept to accept.

So where does it go from here? My name is already known, my work has already made enemies; there is no point in retreating now. Some people are going to praise me for having the balls to speak out over certain issues; others are going to struggle with having the awful truth about their reality revealed to them. The work serves a purpose, it will go on.