(Mod., I put this here since it’s about writing, if GQ seems better, please put it there. Thanks.)
From my profile you will know that I am an unemployable loser. I currently have no future whatsoever, that is not hyperbole, except perhaps a newsworthy death. Since those tend to either involve hurting someone else or spectacular suicide, that option really doesn’t seem to be in the cards.
I do seem to enjoy writing, however. I can spend hours on end composing messages & emails about topics I find interesting. Literally! The only other thing in life that I can happily spend hours on end doing is sleeping. Obviously, a long tract to a friend on a topic of interest to me isn’t the same as professional writing.
Anywho, can one just up and become a “successful” writer, where successful is defined as making a living? If so, how would someone go about doing that?
Something which has crossed my mind many times - but then I’ve made the mistake of making my pastime into ‘work’ twice before so I may have to pass…
The only ‘quick fix’ way to make money from writing I can think of right now are
a) write articles on subjects you understand/enjoy and submit them to magazines/periodicals etc.
A lot of magazines/periodicals carry ‘guest’ columns tho not all read unsolicited submissions for copyright reasons.
b) write a book/short stories and attempt to get them published.
Either way - use the Web (Amazon etc.) to look up some good ‘Writers/Authors Guide/Yearbooks’- these otten list publishers, agents etc. as well as offering lots of tips on what is - and isn’t - a good idea (your library can then source them for you perhaps).
Joining writer’s groups (either online or in the real world) is also a good idea - you share ideas and get support as well as hearing about opportunities…
Creating your own website/blog and populating it with your thoughts is a way to ‘publish and be damned’ too - it’s not going to earn you money per-se but it gives you a voice and a way of collating your work meanwhile.
My husband spent a number of years making a living as an advertising copywriter.
I have friends who have been trying hard for years to get stories published. Both have successfully sold short stories. Both live off of their wives careers and occationally get a check big enough for them to take their wives to dinner.
So while one can just up and become a successful writer, there is no guarentee that you will be able to sell what you write.
Writing is a skill, and you need to develop it. It’s exceedingly rare for someone to take it up and succeed just writing fiction.
You can get paid for your writing while you’re developing your skill. Technical writing is probably the best way: technical writers are always needed and it isn’t that difficult to make a living with that. Even better – you can often do this as a salaried employee. But beware: tech writers are often the first fired if things go bad.
You can start out doing that and slowly build up credits and begin to freelance. Again, in the right areas, you can make a living freelance technical writing.
Now, if you mean “artistic” writing, that’s much different. First of all, it’s a misconception that you need to spend all your time writing. You can easily write novel in your spare time. How? A novel’s 80,000 words. Say you can complete 1000 words (3-4 pages, if you use standard manuscript format) a day. Then you can finish a novel in under three months, if you work at it every day. So you can work to produce income and spend an hour or two a night writing; eventually, you’ll have something. (Granted, there’s no way of knowing if it’ll be publishable, but you’re better off trying than not). And if your job is boring, use the down time to plot out your novel or stories, go over dialogue, think up scenes, etc.
In short, becoming a writer isn’t an either/or proposition. If that’s what you want, then spend an hour a day working on it. You’d be surprised how much that adds up to in a year.
Miller
Marry someone with a real job who doesn’t mind supporting you.
Unfortunately I have to agree. I have a reasonable income as a technical writer, but to reach that stage required a boost from my wife’s income for maybe five years - and even after ten years it’s too variable from month to month to support us if my wife didn’t have an income too. However, as RealityChuck says, technical writing is probably the most effective route into making an income from writing. As to fiction, despite the occasional well-publicised success stories (e.g JK Rowling), it’s monstrously difficult to make any money out of it.
It’s possible but not easy. You need strings to your bow – being able to tutor and run workshops is a vital skill for most writers I know. Doing appearance work is another way of making money.
My partner has 14 books published, 3 currently under consideration with publishers. He doesn’t make a living from royalties even in a good year. He makes a living tutoring creative writing, storytelling and visiting schools. We also do editing and manuscript assessment. It’s taken a decade to get where we are.
But, hey, people do have amazing strokes of luck and it is a cool way to make a living as long as you never expect to be rich.
I can’t remember precisely who said it (although I’m pretty sure it was Vonnegut), but if you want to be a reader, you should read everything you get your hands on.
That’s my plan, at least. I read everything in sight, write when I get the chance, and my prose style progresses on its on until it can be considered my personal style.
As for the economics of being a writer: hahahahahahahaha.
hahahahaha.
ha.
If you want money, dont’ become a writer; become an unscrupulous politician. That’s where the real money’s at.
Not money, just a career I can tolerate. It looks like writing ain’t a reasonable choice for that. I had hoped, though I doubted with all my heart, that it would really be a viable career that one can undertake. Sounds like my heart was in the right place. I don’t know what made me think that it might be possible… Looks like I’m back to planning a spectacular suicide. I wonder where I can get a giant rocket…
Hey; don’t strap yourself to that Acme rocket just yet. Think of alternatives. A friend of mine wants to write but he’s also planning on getting a teaching certificate in college so he can teach to support himself while he writes. If he’s lucky, I suppose, he’ll get to teach composition so at least he’s kind of surrounded by writers.
If you want to write, don’t let the fact that it’s not a secure career stop you.
If you’re just looking for a career for the sake of something to do, I suggest the military. Lose weight, carry a gun, shoot foreigners; stuff like that.
The military suggestion is half-serious, by the way.
Why give up JS_Affricanus? I take the answer to your Q
Can just anybody up and become a writer–and not starve?
as “Yes, you can teach writing, be a technical writer and/or try to freelance articles – It’d be a good idea to have a fall back plan and/or other day job if you want to write fiction.”
The only way I’d give up is if your Q ** really** was Can just anybody up and become a JK Rowling, Steven King, or Tom Clancy --and become fabulously wealthy without really trying?" if that was your Q at heart then the responses aren’t encouraging – but otherwise they are …
Advertising copy as well as tech writing. There is a career in marketing.
The nice thing about advertising/marketing communications/ public relations is that it is often (not always) a real job, with a salary.
The problem is that the market is a little flooded right now with people with experience. Advertising is never a good field during an economic downturn - this one is particularly bad for writers as the industry created all sorts of new writers to do web content five years ago that are now on the street. Five years ago, if you could dangle a participle you could write for the web.
js_africanus
Not money, just a career I can tolerate. It looks like writing ain’t a reasonable choice for that.
I second jimmmy. No-one’s saying “don’t write”, just advising on which approaches work for people and which, most likely, don’t. If you haven’t married into money, the advice to start out writing as a sideline to a second job is very good (and it’s still good advice even if you have). I’ve a friend who has written a novel while working as manager of a beer shop, working on the office computer in quiet periods when there were no customers.
I think that, if you choose a career in writing, you have to look beyond the financial. I have been writing for years, ever since I can remember. I take writing classes and submit to literary journals, none of which have accepted my work for publication. Despite not being published, I still love to write.
I was fortunate in that my job duties were recently changed so that I spend about 80% of my work week answering email and writing a newsletter. Did I get a pay raise to go with my new responsibilities? Nope, no raise. (And I’m not making very much to begin with.) But I do get a lot of satisfaction out of it–the day goes quickly when I’m composing letters; time drags when I have to answer phones and book reservations.
You can be a writer, whether you have a job that requires writing, or you’re fortunate enough that your job is to write. What you may want to ask yourself is this: Does the personal satisfaction I get from writing make up for the lack of lucrative opportunities?
I’ve written a number of short stories as well as a fairly shitty novel, and I don’t starve. I also don’t rely on it to feed me, getting my income from other means.
I’ve never gotten anything published, but then again, I’ve never tried, simply because I DON’T write to get published. I was doing this for years before I even knew I had that option(“I write a Bit”. “Have you gotten anything published?”. “Huh?”). I write because I enjoy it, and frankly, would hate to have to depend upon cranking out books to have decent living. I’m lucky if I can write that often.
Good call. Some Acme jet shoes may be more spectacular–and within my budget!
Has anybody here competed in NaNoWriMo? Something Rincewind said really got an idea in my head that I cannot shake. That’s not what prompted the OP, however. It was prompted by the thought that it might be possible to earn a living writing short pieces for, I don’t know, some sort of magazines or journals. I can’t put my finger on what prompted the thought. It’s driving me nuts.
It sounds like writing will involve basically two career paths: incredibly boring–i.e. technical writing, which I understand to be taking horribly boring technical jargon and translating it into horribly boring baby-talk, and copy writing, which I did for an online catalog once and almost literally died of boredom. Good thing there was a Canadian at the next computer. The other career path, since I’m so terrible with women, involves being like Marx–living off the largesse of friends.
Doing it as a side job is outside the bounds of the OP. If I could get a job that wouldn’t have me suicidally bored within a week, then I wouldn’t have a problem. I wish my parents would have dropped me on my head as a toddler; I’m just smart enough to get bored, but not smart enough to overcome my pathological laziness and irresponsibility (my doctor calls it ADD, a rose by any other name…).
js_africanus
incredibly boring–i.e. technical writing, which I understand to be taking horribly boring technical jargon and translating it into horribly boring baby-talk
There’s another thread on this here in the GQ section, where technical authors dispel this stereotype. It’s what I do, and it’s nothing like that.
