How to Make a Living as a Writer

Reaction to the Essay & Style

• Many commenters found the piece “beautiful,” “entertaining,” and easy to read, praising its balance of light tone with underlying sadness and hope.
• The horse/stable puns split readers: some loved them as clever and charming; others saw them as clichéd, “dad-joke” level, or movie-review-grade corniness.
• Several people said the essay rekindled the feeling of reading “random stuff” online just for pleasure, without distraction.

Making a Living as a Writer

• Multiple commenters stressed that writing alone rarely pays a living wage; most working writers either have another income stream, live very lean, or rely on some form of privilege (family wealth, high-earning partner, etc.).
• Comparisons were made to “how I bought a house at 29” stories that quietly hinge on rich parents or other invisible advantages.
• Some suggested more sustainable adjacent paths: editing, proofreading, content marketing, analyst roles, technical writing, and grant writing. These can pay rent but rarely lead to affluence.
• A minority pushed back on fatalism, arguing you can self-fund a writing career by first getting a high‑paying job and saving, which others derided as unrealistic for most people.

AI, “Content,” and Creative Work

• A large subthread debated why the essay didn’t mention AI, given its obvious relevance to paid writing.
• One side claimed most of the described gigs are already replaceable “for a fraction of the cost,” predicting anonymous corporate writing (copy, product blurbs, headlines, summaries) will largely move to AI.
• Others argued managers don’t actually want to prompt and shepherd models, that prompts themselves require writing skill, and that writers will still be needed—especially where error rates must be near zero or where lived experience and voice matter.
• Several writers described AI use as equivalent to strikebreaking, given training on unlicensed work and the devaluation of human creativity.
• There was broad agreement that personality, identity, and parasocial connection will matter more: writers who build a recognizable, human brand (often via video) may survive even as generic “content” is automated.

Disability, Ethics, and Compromise

• Commenters discussed the author’s chronic condition: some empathized deeply; others argued about what “counts” as disability and how openly one should frame it.
• The ethics of specific writing work (horse-racing coverage, “reputation management,” erotica, scammy marketing) were debated; several noted the tension between survival and moral discomfort, praising the author’s honesty about that tradeoff.