The Day I Was Told, 'Let Me Pay You for Your Writing'

"You have amazing talent! I really want you to write for me!"
I was told things like that.

Perhaps the time I thought that way was the happiest I've ever been.

The longer I continued, the more I was confronted with how mediocre and talentless I truly was.

Having gone so far as to become a freelancer with the enthusiasm of earning an income through writing, I felt I had to achieve some kind of track record.

I applied for writing gigs,
entered note contests,
tried selling paid notes,
and well, various other things.

I had been sowing seeds everywhere.

All of those were the type of things where I had to say, "Please let me write" or "Please buy this," and they were all essentially forms of self-promotion where I just had to wait to be chosen.

Even so, I was happy enough.
After all, I had achieved the goal of earning an income from what I wrote, however small it may have been.

Then, one day.

It was a LINE message from my own sister.

Although I get along well with my sister, we haven't been in frequent contact since we both got married. Besides, my sister has always been the responsible one, so I figured it must be something serious if she was asking me for a favor.

Wondering what on earth was going on, I replied immediately, only to find out it was a request for a manuscript. It seemed she had to write an article about parenting for some social obligation, and she insisted she couldn't write it herself.

320 characters is something that wouldn't even take me 20 minutes, given that I usually write thousands of characters on Note. Even this article has already reached 580 characters by this point. I replied that I didn't need any payment.

But my sister stubbornly refused.

I want you to write it. Let me pay you properly for the manuscript. she told me repeatedly.

Once she said that, I had no choice but to give it my all, and I decided to write an article that would be my best work.

I wanted my sister, who was the first client to specifically choose me, to say, 'I'm glad I asked you.'

In the end, I wrote two articles—one in the 'dearu' style and one in the 'desumasu' style—and submitted them to my sister. I waited for her reply, wondering if there would be revisions or if I had met her expectations.

Feeling both relieved and a bit embarrassed, I almost replied, 'I'm not a writer, haha,' but I stopped myself.

I realized that if my sister thought of me as a writer and relied on me for a manuscript, and if I was able to write exactly what she wanted, then perhaps I had already become a writer in her eyes.

The payment she sent me afterward was labeled as a 'writing fee'.

Even if it was just favoritism from a family member, and even if the amount was only 1,000 yen, this was the day I first experienced being told, 'I want to pay you a writing fee.'

I received the "Yamada Award" for this project✨ I'm so happy. Thank you very much.