How does the cost of living impact your writing?

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

Most economies have been experiencing severe volatility, high inflation and a rising cost of living (some worse than others, of course). This will lead to many people changing their behaviour, making adjustments to their everyday lives and even changing the kind of media they consume.

What impact, if any, will this have on your writing? Will it affect how much you write or what you write about? Do you think readership patterns might be affected?

Personally, I’m relatively well-off and in a secure job, but I will still need to make big adjustments to how I spend my time, taking on more responsibility at work. As a result, I’ll probably put less time into writing over the next few months and the stories I do write will look different to accommodate that new schedule.

P.S. If you were around and writing around 2008, I’d be especially curious as to your thoughts and reflection on the topic.

 

[KeithD]

No impact whatsoever. I'm retired (three times over), financially cushioned, debt free, and with far more income (not from erotica writing) than outgo at this point.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

I'm hoping there won't be much impact this time but when things crashed in the 2008 downturn, I stopped writing altogether for several years.

I'd already cut back on my writing before the 2008 mess but the added workload after layoffs (I survived) brought it to a halt. Between that added workload and getting out of the habit, it was several years before I resumed my writing when a writer friend asked me to read something she'd written and asked what I'd written recently. I published my first new story in years just a couple of weeks later and have been writing and publishing regularly since then.

In hindsight, I'm sorry that I lost those years and all of the stories I might have written and shared. With that in mind, if you enjoy writing but your work or economic circumstances change, please remember my mistake and don't let your writing be another casualty.

 

[MillieDynamite]

It probably will not affect me. Fortunately, Jo's job pays well, has retirement, a 401K package and she's the boss, so that helps. However, the economic downturn and other concerns have kept my father from retiring yet. He turned 68 a few weeks back. He can retire, but worries about inflation affecting his ability to live comfortably will keep him working for now. Mum has started an online business she hopes will do well where he'll quit his job. But, such ventures take time to develop.

 

[dmallord]

My purpose for writing is not related to economics. It is just mental exercise to stave off those creeping memory issues. Like my ... my keys again, why did I start for the door? And those other old age moments. I'm hoping the writing aspect will keep my mind a bit sharper. I'd like to be out in the wood shop puttering around but this old age thing is getting bothersome. Hard to lift the woods and the hands have a few new shakes so its now more a focus on the mental exercising writing provides; no sharp things on this keyboard, ya' know? Those sciatic nerve issues are hell on bending down to pick up whatever I dropped.

 

[thomas1965]

I gives me more time for writing since I don't go to Costa or eat out nowadays.

 

[MrPixel]

I find it affects my mood, and a bad mood will filter through to my writing, or even discourage me from writing.

Being retired, we're dealing with a double whammy - inflation, etc., is eroding our nest egg at a faster clip, while at the same time our retirement accounts are losing value hand-over-fist as the investment community throws a temper tantrum over inflation. Makes for a bad mood in our house.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

If my utility bills hadn't trebled over the last year, and my mortgage rate which is about to expire weren't likely to go up by 50%, and all, then I'd likely give up my job and look after family more, be less stressed, and have more time to write.

In the circs, you get a sentence here, a phrase there, usually when I'm off my tits on painkillers.

In 2008 I had more commitments, recovery from medical stuff, but had the luck to have just taken out a variable rate mortgage. I remember being in hospital for a week and the rate dropping 3 or 4 times, resulting in us overpaying significantly and making the subsequent decade much easier. We're hardly on the breadline now, but we're sure feeling the pinch.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

The only impact I have experienced is from my wife interrupting my writing with complaints about the higher price of one thing or another.

 

[stickygirl]

As has been said, mood has an impact but also disposable income/job security yada yada. So, if I can ignore the political insanity in the UK then that takes care of my mood, and with no money I can sit at home in the evening in my warmest fleeces and maybe write? I'm so glad I'm not having to face bills alone now.

 

[SamScribble]

My characters are finding themselves having to drink non-vintage Champagne

 

[Comshaw]

The economy, what things cost doesn't affect my writing output. What does is the time of year. Starting in the late spring to mid-fall I spend most of my time outside. As an avid motorcyclist and fisherman I spend a lot of time on those activities. I also have acreage with fences to mend, pastures to water and horses to take care of. When the days get shorter and the darkness creeps in earlier, I switch to inside activities, such as writing.

Comshaw

 

[Cali_Love]

I’m going to interpret your question a little differently.

My stories are situated in Southern California and the >$ cost of living has a profound effect about how people live. Younger people are unlikely to own a home, or are mega house-poor and nobody, and I mean nobody, lives alone in CA (Mark Zuckerberg excluded). This question made me look back and I describe more background than I should about the living conditions of my characters (i.e. “he managed to buy during the housing bubble and it’s now worth a million,” or “he bought the home from his parents when they retired to . . . “). Uggh.

 

[CyranoJ]

Most economies have been experiencing severe volatility, high inflation and a rising cost of living (some worse than others, of course). This will lead to many people changing their behaviour, making adjustments to their everyday lives and even changing the kind of media they consume.
. . .

P.S. If you were around and writing around 2008, I’d be especially curious as to your thoughts and reflection on the topic.

Let's put it this way. I was active in free erotica writing communities within a narrow band that ended about seven or eight years ago. When paid writing became an active option, that pretty much ended. Even paid erotica writing stopped around six years ago, because the money in freelance writing just isn't in erotica. None of that has changed. I basically do not write without being paid at this point, because I can't afford to. From 2017 onward it has been how I make my living.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Do I let current events leak into my stories? Sure if that story is about current events... but that one I did got rejected.

Has the current inflation hurt my writing... no, but my pneumonia has. Also, I live in Texas, where the price of gas is still under $3.60 a gallon. Although Uber has raised some of it's prices lately. But other than that nope.

 

[Duleigh]

What impact, if any, will this have on your writing?

I have MUCH more time to write now that I can't afford to go anywhere.