Writing for money

I remember as an 18-year old literature student attending a lecture by a visiting professor from the Oxford University. He gave a talk on John Keats, my ideal at that point of time. John Keats, the boy-man who at twenty-two had died of consumption leaving behind such a beautiful body of poetry. The professor from Oxford explained that one of the reasons (in fact the main reason) the poet wrote was to survive financially. I remember how extremely upset I was at this statement, finance and poetry were really quite far apart in my mind. Well, so was most of literature.

But when I hear about the earnings of some of the foremost bestselling authors of our times, I wonder if some of them write for money.

I am a freelance writer for magazines and websites, so I write for money.

But now that I am on to fiction, I have had to start thinking of its earning potential, and I am not so sure I should. I have so far been a firm advocate of writing fiction for the sake of writing, but now that I have to take chunks out of my freelance writing time, I am not so sure.

I’d love to throw the question into the void, and figure out what the majority of writers think about writing vis a vis money.