Pay It Your Way! (And I'll say it mine)

[CouldThisBeMyJob]

Hi everyone! ☺️
Just going all out here with a bit about myself and why I've made this thread.
I'm a single mother to 3 young children - one primary, one preschool and one soon to be toddler! Although he does already toddle 🤣
I'm nearly a year out of a abusive relationship of 10 years that was very difficult for me as it had been all my adult life so far, I've had a lot of rebuilding to do.
As time goes on my main focus now is to better the lives of my children and me in every way that I can.
One of these ways is thinking about work options and ways to boost income to make things easier for us.
I don't drive and live rural with my kids and I'm trying to think of ways my interests/skills might be helpful.
One thing I've always loved is poetry and used to write for fun as a child. I really love to put myself into others mindsets to try and write something meaningful and heartfelt they almost feel as if they could have written themselves. Whether this is a special message for a loved one, an engagement note, baby announcement, a memory or a message of grief. Or anything else at all I'd be thrilled to really put my all into it with detail and time to produce a excellent end result!
The only thing is I'd never ask a price for something that I'd written. It might be worth 2p to one person and £20 to the next.
That's ok and I'd be happy with both payments.
so the idea of
Pay It Your Way
created in my head, perhaps foolishly, that's what I'm trying to gauge here.
Is this something anyone would be interested in discussing with me or just letting me know you think it's crazy or any other comments will be all helpful!
Pay It Your Way
And
I'll Say It Mine

🤞

Bump

I think it’s a fab idea! I often struggle with words and google for ages to find the right quote or message that’s just right, often adapting or amalgamating
DD got married last year and I wanted something personal - I ended up decorating (with words) the edges of a heart shaped wooden board instead of a card as they were all too twee, took me hours of research I would’ve happily paid you between 20 and 50 quid if it was what I wanted to say
I am not sure how it would work in practice you would have to find a platform that then allowed people to donate or choose an amount for what they think it’s worth
maybe based on length and how bespoke it is

Im not sure I understand? Are you saying you write a poem and the person chooses the price they pay?
If so, I'd hate this and it would put me off. I'd be so scared of offering too low and offending you, I'd end up not doing business with you.

I think it's a nice idea but agree with @Whaleandsnail6 about the random pricing aspect.

Could you combine it with something else and at least set a minimum payment - so if you can do a bit of calligraphy as well, you could write it up in a nice blank card, or on a scroll. Or if you are good with Publisher or similar you could create something that you can send to one of those places that will turn it into a jigsaw etc. Random thoughts.

Obviously the price would have to cover your costs, and you could stick a bit of profit on for yourself.

Thank you so much for your replies and some amazing ideas too!
Yes @Whaleandsnail6 that's what I mean. Thanks for your viewpoint I hadn't thought of it that way. For me personally I wouldn't be at all offended. My main issue would be that it meant I had done a bad job and not produced something I'd hoped to. Being honest I would count it as being a bad job for less than £5.
Times are very tough for everyone financially I know that but I am struggling to keep afloat and have a very limited support network I'm trying to build on as I'm in a new area miles from where I grew up. Any monetary contribution for something I'd written would feel like a massive achievement to me even a couple quid.
I'd still assume the person didn't like what I'd written but it would still help me out.
I can see the points made though.
Perhaps I could make it a £2 minimum and this would curb that problem?

I would set your minimum as £5 and then suggest multiples of so £10, £15, £20 etc
then use this as a guide to where to take it forward

It's certainly a good plan. Lots of people want great wedding speeches, eulogies and lots more, but know that they don't have a good way with words - so they're happy to outsource it to somebody who does.

It may well not be feasible, depending on what childcare options you have - although maybe one to consider when they're older - but are you also any good with reading/presenting in public? If so, this is pretty much what a wedding/funeral/other celebrant does: speaks to you to draw out all of your personal thoughts, memories and important facts and interests and then draws it together into a beautifully compiled, special piece of lyrical art.

You may even find somebody who is amazing at composing music but rubbish with lyrics, so you could possibly collaborate.

I agree with PPs about prices, though. I get that it can feel awkward setting a price when it's your own personal skill and creations that you're selling, but it is for the best overall, so that everybody knows where they stand.

Otherwise, people can worry about giving you too little; or about paying way over the odds. Also, you will get nasty people who see it as their opportunity to royally rip you off and, even if they love it dearly, will still tell you it's only worth 50p to them, just because they're horrible and figure that they can get away with it.

Even if you feel uncomfortable doing so, you don't want to sell yourself short/inadvertently invite CFs, but you also don't want to deter genuine customers on a reasonable budget who just assume that such a bespoke service would be well out of their price-range, when it absolutely wouldn't. I would at least give a clear ball-park price, even if you're subsequently open to negotiations.

I would also provide people with a few samples of your work, so they know how good you are before they commit. They will want to trust that you're not the wordsmith equivalent of the people who go on the X-Factor, so confident of their vocal greatness, and then just tunelessly howl into the mic - and won't want to pay good money to hire somebody who produces even worse results than they could have done themselves!

Isn't this what Ai does though?

AI is amazingly clever, but it can never replace an actual human when it comes to creative (or even just factual) writing.

Ebay uses it now - I presume they must offer it to sellers as standard - and it stands out a mile whether a description is written by AI or by the actual seller themselves.

I've been looking at car roof boxes and so many of the descriptions are full of so much fancy prosaic waffle and pointless/obvious phrases. It's all very nice telling me that it will "add a touch of style, complement the colour of any vehicle and prove a great addition to my holiday" and even educating me that you can use it to put luggage into it (who could have guessed that?) and that it simply fits on to the roof bars on top of the car (ah, so I don't need to drag it behind on a skateboard, then); but the actual info that I want - dimensions, any cracks, fittings and keys - is never included, unless the seller adds it manually at the end.

@WhiffyTheWizard that does sound exactly what the op is offering though?

I would say op if you are a good writer can you get your foot in the door and be a copywriter? Might not be terribly creative, but at least you'd be getting paid properly.

Eh? Am I missing something? OP is offering to write like an AI bot rather than as the human that she (presumably) is?!