“It’s easier than ever to make music, and harder than ever to make a living from it,” Luc Rinaldi writes. This statement applies well to writing.

Perhaps it’s a matter of expectation: too many people expect to make a living from art. Maybe it’s because we are exposed to a lot of artists who have also built very big businesses through their work. 

Conversely, many artists throughout history didn’t make a living from their work. They either chose to live very frugally, apply their skills to some commercial work, or work a full-time job outside of their art.

There is an opportunity to think twice about the assumption that artistic success had to be profitable, or pursued as a full-time vocation, in the first place.