That time Esquire paid me a bunch of money to write a Bond lifestyle consumer guide https://www.esquire.com/style/a38517/james-bond-style-guide/

I used the mobile deposit app so I could keep the check - being paid for writing something by Hearst tickled me, and still does.

Not very long before that, I had writing for years online as a side thing, an escape. I would write unsolicited reviews and post them on message boards. I would give them away for free to websites. (Don’t do that.)

I reviewed BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR in 2003 for free and a blurb (uncredited) from my review ended up on the DVD cover

But whether there was anyplace for it to go or not, the writing was always going to happen either way. The writing was always the end, not the means.

No one should profit off your work if you aren’t getting paid, but if you’re wanting to write you should probably be writing whether anyone’s paying, whether anyone’s reading. Those things happened after I was writing for over a decade.

Try to write anyway, so that when the readers and the paying gigs show up, you’re ready to whip their asses.

Then one day if you’re very lucky, your writing will be rewarded with...a gig where you’re doing hardly any writing.