Poet For Hire

One way to work as an affordable writer is by writing poems for hire, something some poets have done for many centuries. Bards in medieval Wales and Ireland, for instance, composed praise-poems for chieftains, hoping to be rewarded with generous gifts. They were supposed to have the additional power of writing magical satires, so the whole procedure was really a form of extortion- noblemen would make the gifts as generous as possible out of fear of the bards' magic. The Irish bards were even supposed to be able to make the earth swallow them up if they weren't generous enough.

In the modern world, poets-for-hire usually ply their trade online, advertizing their services largely through personal websites. I've never done this kind of work for money, but I've done essentially the same thing as a personal favor on several occasions. If a friend asks me to write a poem he can give his girlfriend, or something to read aloud at their wedding, I usually oblige.

 

Of course, that's a matter of my personal relationship with the person who's asking me. Poets-for-hire take it one step further, offering the same service for a fee to anyone in the world. The clients are generally asking for the same thing, though- a little literary help in the romance department. The quality of the poetry is likely to vary quite a bit from one poet to another, but if you don't feel confident enough to write your own love poem, this might be a good idea- and it's certainly a bit more imaginative than another bouquet.