This 19-year-old's lucrative side hustle: Making $10,000 a month writing video game backstories

Arash Lahijani was a precocious schoolhouse elder erstwhile helium learned helium could marque wealth penning backstories for video crippled characters.

A person of his had paid a Fiverr freelancer $70 to bash it for a Grand Theft Auto character, helium recalls — truthful helium started researching, and realized determination was a market. Even better, it was thing helium could bash arsenic a broadside hustle aft schoolhouse and during weekends.

A week later, successful April 2021, helium acceptable himself up connected Fiverr. Since then, he's earned $62,400 penning much than 400 quality backstories for an online mentation of the video crippled Grand Theft Auto, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

In conscionable his 2nd afloat period connected the platform, helium made $9,700. "I ne'er knew that penning could marque maine $10,000 successful a month," Lahijani, present a 19-year-old sophomore astatine New York's Baruch College, tells CNBC Make It.

Unlike professionals who make characters and plotlines for video crippled studios, Lahijani specifically writes for users who play Grand Theft Auto 5 Roleplay, a multiplayer machine mentation of the fashionable console game. In this iteration of the game, players person to taxable quality backstories to articulation circumstantial servers and play with definite users.

Lahijani, whose clients scope from "50-year-old dads to 15-year-old kids," doesn't marque that benignant of currency year-round. His other income is reliant connected however galore hours helium works, and arsenic a full-time student, helium tin lone perpetrate 3 to 4 hours per time during the schoolhouse year: In September, helium lone made $1,750.

Here's however Lahijani learned however to constitute video crippled quality backstories and however helium plans to turn his income done writing:

Lahijani says his penning skills aren't from English classes oregon extracurricular interests. At Baruch College, wherever helium has a afloat world scholarship, Lahijani is studying statistic and quantitative modeling.

Rather, helium says his knack for storytelling comes from penning and listening to speeches. In precocious school, helium was a people president, the schoolhouse treasurer and the laminitis of the machine subject club. He besides worked with the Nassau County territory attorney's office, arsenic portion of a region inaugural for schoolhouse safety.

Those nationalist speaking experiences taught him however to constitute a "hook" astir which his code would revolve, helium says. Those aforesaid types of hooks present service arsenic the archetypal and past sentences of his quality backstories, helium adds.

Lahijani, who goes by Jimmycanwrite connected Fiverr, offers 3 types of packages for clients, which outgo betwixt $45 and $195 each. The astir costly option, which includes a 10-page backstory that takes astir a week to write, is the astir popular, helium says.

For those premium stories, helium asks each lawsuit astir their character's birthplace, age, job, strengths and weaknesses and their goals for the aboriginal — but those details aren't required. Lahijani really says helium prefers moving with small oregon nary context, due to the fact that it gives him originative licence to marque up a communicative from scratch.

Once, during a bout of writer's block, helium turned connected the TV and watched a weatherman. He imagined that person's backstory, and it became the crippled of his adjacent story, helium says.

With each character, Lahijani makes up a beingness lawsuit that affected their personality, explains wherefore they're moving to Los Santos — the fictional metropolis wherever this peculiar crippled is acceptable — and what their aspirations are.

"It's a virtual world, truthful if I constitute astir a liquor store owner, that's however he'll look successful GTA, dealing with radical coming successful to bargain alcohol," Lahijani explained. "In my mind, I'm helping my clients spot their quality done large beingness events."

Full-time writers astatine video crippled studios marque an mean of $56,417 per year, according to ZipRecruiter. If Lahijani made his maximum of $10,000 per month, he'd gain 2 times much than that.

For the astir part, Lahijani uses that currency for applicable things. He says helium spent $12,000 connected a utilized car and enactment $6,000 successful a Roth IRA account.

Sometimes, helium treats himself and his family. He's enactment immoderate of that wealth toward travel, and bought his parent a $1,550 diamond necklace for Christmas past year, helium says.

Lahijani says helium doesn't program to prosecute a penning vocation aft graduation, opting alternatively for concern and hazard absorption — but helium plans to support penning arsenic a broadside hustle.

One satisfied lawsuit precocious asked if helium would constitute a customized children's publication for their nephew's birthday. Lahijani didn't instrumentality them up connected the offer, but it helped him recognize helium could use his penning skills to much than conscionable video games.

"I ne'er realized I could beryllium truthful skillful doing this, and present I deliberation I could usage penning to assistance different radical bash different things," Lahijani says. He precocious posted connected Fiverr that helium wants to tutor precocious schoolhouse students connected however to constitute assemblage admittance essays.

"I privation to springiness radical the assurance to write," helium says.

Sign up now: Get smarter astir your wealth and vocation with our play newsletter

Don't miss:

This 32-year-old precocious schoolhouse dropout turned his video crippled broadside hustle into a $105 cardinal startup

This 24-year-old earns $3,000 a period arsenic a nonrecreational video crippled coach—here’s what it’s like