Lifestyle

It's a big ask. I know a few young people who travel and fund their travel by writing - but they are, without exception, from a pretty privileged background, and they have parents who would not only pick up any essential costs, but use birthdays and Christmases to top up bank accounts and phone cards and whatever else is useful. I don't think it's the glamorous, gutsy, free-wheeling thing it used to be seen as. These kids I'm thinking of live fairly authentically in a shallow sense - but if they need dental work or anything medical, mum and dad have got their backs. But this is a gap year thing. I doubt their mums and dads would be happy for it to go on for more than a couple of years.

Prince said:

Where, if I may ask, did they live, then?

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Are you asking me? (It's clearer if you reply with quote ) They were travelling, so they lived where their travels took them, usually doing air-bnb or house-sitting if they can get it. Or a group will start off travelling together and split housing for a few months, make new friends and then move on with them. (As I said, it's more gap-year or -two or -three than lifelong.) The writers among them tend to get articles published here and there - a couple of them have come back with books, but the travels seem to only form part of that story.

The one who's been at it longest is now in her early 30s - she's been living nomadically in places that would seem quite challenging for a single young woman (Afghanistan, Pakistan, various countries in Africa) - since her late teens. She tends to stay there till she runs out of money, comes back home and couch-surf with friends (she's delightful company with excellent stories), working hard at low-level jobs till she's got enough saved - and then she hits the road again. She does write about her travels, and has sold some pieces, but that's not why she writes (or travels). She's an excellent photographer and a very good writer, but she doesn't bring in anything like enough to fund her travels that way.

ETA: Just going back to your first question - yes it is possible to write without having money behind you, but making a living as a writer is extraordinarily difficult. Which doesn't mean anyone should give up writing ever, just that we all need to know to take care of other things (healthcare, primarily) as well. It's all a lot easier for kids who have a couple of years grace, and a bit of money behind them.

Prince said:

Well, I am gifted, I guess. The problem is getting people into what I made

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Yes - gifted is good but it doesn't pay the bills.

I am kinda doing it the other way around. I have always been a bit of a nomad and threw in my only real job after 6 months some 45 years ago.
I have settled in Thailand and now use recollections of my past adventures to feed my desire to write. Fortunately I have enough love, food and shelter to allow me to persue the notion that I may end up writing something others want to read.
Chokdee