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[Nightcore Angel]

I'm not exactly talking about the skill required to do so, I'm fully aware that even going literature class, one still needs to learn from life it self. What I'm asking is that I want to know the hardship and merits of being one. ex. being an AAA game dev can pour you in tons of $, but living conditions requires you to have 40h of work per week-possibly more, deadlines are strict, and competition is fierce, etc.

I'm looking for a place in the world, I'm not quite sure what to do with my life, I'm not stuck, I'm definitely unemployed, but I do need to get things together.

Thanks for the advice

[Reelya]

If you want to write novels, get a dayjob then write in the evenings and weekends. You have to be committed to it. You can also write articles but you're only going to make piecemeal money from that.

AAA game dev isn't any magical money ticket either, don't be fooled. You have to be lucky to get a foot in the door anywhere. It's more about who you know.

Be aware for every JK Rowling and Sid Meier out there, there are 100 people who want to do those things for a living but can't afford to.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

What kind of writing do you want to do?

[Parsely]

Try it.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

The "Writing" industry doesn't hold your hand.

If you want to write novels, well you most certainly will need a day job until you've published one or two so that you can survive on the royalties.

If you're confident in your work and you have a number of people you can get feedback from, you may try competition-entry. There are a slew of short story competitions that usually have a monetary reward of some kind! Not only do you get vital practice, you can win actual money, and even if you dont they usually give you feedback. Poetry competitions also exist.

Screenwriting is of course, it's own beast. If you haven't already, I'd try writing in all manner of length, form, and medium--so you know yourself. Especially a screenplay. If you're practiced, you can pump out scripts anywhere between 2-8 weeks and get paid for it. Script Doctoring is an option too, no royalties or residuals, but you get a lump sum up front.

You also need a portfolio. If you haven't developed one or started to develop one, I would have 4-6 samples from whatever medium you're primarily concerned with ready to show. Next, I'd recommend a literary agent... someone to get you opportunities, negotiate on your behalf, and generally keep you in check. Which brings me back to my last point, this is a screenwriting thing, but probably good advice in general--you may want to try and stick to a certain genre. It makes you more sellable.

Of course, you can probably find work doing journalism of some kind or any sort of writing for papers, magazines, etc. Take a look at Script Coverage as well. Basically, you read scripts and summarize them for little to no money, but its a job and good experience. There are similar positions for publishing houses.

I'm Junior in college right now, getting prepared to go into the screenwriting industry. By no means am I an expert, but I can probably answer a question or two if you have them. Here or in PMs.

[Arcvasti]

The "Writing" industry doesn't hold your hand.

If you want to write novels, well you most certainly will need a day job until you've published one or two so that you can survive on the royalties.

...

There are very few authors who can survive off of royalties. Honestly, writing is probably not going to be more then a hobby which occasionally gives you a couple hundred bucks if you hit it big[By which I mean winning some awards and getting 15-18 non-bestsellers published, which is still optimistic]. If you get vaguely well known, you can still make an bit of a living off of doing talks at schools and libraries and such. But honestly, novel writing is a very difficult industry to get into because supply vastly exceeds demand. Everyone and their dog thinks they can write and very few of them can. Mediocre and terrible books make up the majority of published books and there are even worse ones in the slush pile. For that reason, it is hard to convince people your writing is any different from the hundreds of entries they have to choose from.

But if you actually do want to write and are willing to accept that you're most likely never going to make money off of it, then do so. Most of the small-time authors I know are more interested in just getting recognition of their ideas and having fun writing a story then in actual profits.

+1 to getting an agent/editor. Sometimes your ideas are just dumb. Learning how to take criticism is important. I remember one new member of my mother's writer's group bringing in a sexist heap of trash and then blowing his top when no one liked it. A writer's group is good for bouncing ideas off of people and critiquing the first or second drafts, but at some point you do need someone known as reliable to have vetted your work. Agents/editors usually don't work for free, so you'll definitely need a day job.

At first at least, just having a book published will probably help a lot. Unless people know who you are already, then basically no one will buy your e-book or print-on-demand book simply because no one's figured out how to advertise those well yet. For those reasons, people are more willing to experiment with those formats, since they don't have to pay as much for unused digital copies. So starting with e-book places would most likely be a good way to establish some credibility.


Note that most of the above mostly concerns novel writing. Short stories are generally easier to get published in a magazine or an anthology, but that format isn't for everybody. Its also more viable for making money if you don't have the time for several review cycles, since they don't take as long to write.

And I know very little about writing articles or scripts, so those could be better financially.

[TheBiggerFish]

Well whatever you do, good luck.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Good luck from me as well--and yes to Arcvasti's point, novel writing is perhaps the hardest way to make money writing.

[Funk]

Being a writer is a job like homebrewing wine, kitting or restoring furniture is a job.
Ever hear that "Every one has a novel in them?" well it's true but how many actually make money at any kind of rate?

Your first novel is not going to sell all that well, not at first so you will not see any money for a good 6 months.

[Nightcore Angel]

Thanks everyone for the good luck wish and advice, i'm happy now that at least i had some picture of how things will be. Will think things over, im just starting in life anyway so i don't know where to start or what to start, all your answers gave me some perspective, i greatly value this. 

[jcd748]

Yeah, writing is hard. My mother is a published poet with several books at one the great publishers here in Canada (Brick Books), and she's never really made a living with it - it's been the thing that she did in addition to her full-time job.

Writing is very, very hard, and there's a reason almost everyone does it "on the side" for some period of time.

[Detoxicated]

Go for it.  Discipline and Determination are key and not even the sky is the limit

[pondicherry]

I wish you all the luck. And, please watch Neil Gaiman - Inspirational Commencement Speech at the University of the Arts 2012  (just youtube it).

[Jo]

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[Jo]

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