Do I HAVE To Have a Niche?

I knew growing up, I wanted to be a writer. What I did not know was that there were many universes revolved around writing and they were all different. There are so many niches and topics and types of writing that it can be confusing, overwhelming, and downright discouraging.

There is a lot of information out in the world and a lot of different types of writing.

From storytelling and speeches to contract writing, people who are good with words have always been needed. In today's world, it may not seem like it, but writers are still a hot commodity. AI will never be able to replace the unique human voice that people have.

The problem I had growing up, is I thought that being a 'writer' meant being an 'author.' I had a narrow and naive idea that being a writer would be fun and easy for me. When I hit adulthood, I began to seriously pursue my writing career... I found out that writing wasn't nearly as clear-cut as I thought. Nor was it easy. Nor did I have a clue about the depth of how many different types of 'writers' there are.

Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. YouTube and Google were overworked by me for weeks. I subscribed to content creation channels, and how to monetize your writing skills was a big deal for my research. And all this did was spur my motivation, but add to my confusion. They gave me great ideas! However, the execution of my ideas was not impressive.

I'll admit, in the 6 years I've been writing I've only made about $1000 total.

I found out quickly that I am not someone who makes money by being hired by people for content creation. I had one $600 job where I created the content for a business website, and while that was nice, I freaking hated it. Not only was my client difficult and unreliable, but I felt that I was being suffocated.

I realized I was not a copywriter when I was trying to learn about it by falling asleep and thinking: oh my god, I would hate my life if I had to do this every day.

I was a contract writer for a relationship blog for a while. I did enjoy it, the challenge of the writing prompts and word count and keyword requirements challenged me. And I enjoy writing about relationships. I didn't hate this, but the agent in charge of handing out my assignments disappeared and I just didn't bother to follow through. However, I realized that if I were to be hired by someone and they gave me a prompt that I couldn't invest myself mentally in, my work quality and my ability to tolerate life would quickly be compromised.

Not all writers are meant to be wealthy content creators.

I want to write, but I want to write what I want to write. I struggle with the concept of being 'told' what to write for money. After a while, I came to realize that not all writers are meant to make their whole living off writing, and not everyone is capable of being what a lot of people online consider 'writing.'

I realized quickly that I am not a 'niche' writer. I get bored, I need to change it up. I want to write about my unpopular opinions or give insight that I have of my own volition.

I've learned enough to know that it's okay to not be a niche writer.

It's really about defining what kind of writer are you. Do you enjoy copywriting? Are you a content creator? Or are you someone like me, who joins platforms so we can write whatever we want?

I write because I enjoy writing, not to make money. I'll admit, that the people who read my articles are great for me in the long game when I republish my book, or get my second novel done. There will be readers who follow me who know about it.

At the end of the day, this writer is about passion, not money (although the extra money made from my articles is nice!)

So if you are still trying to find your niche, and you feel like you may not fit into any one category - the good news is that writing is so versatile that you don't have to have a niche. While putting yourself into a niche does help you become an expert in one topic, which can become a mainstream source of revenue for you, feel free to stretch your wings and explore all types of writing until you find what suits you.