Anyone write as a full time job?

[BellaIsabella]

Anyone? My goal and dream is to be a full time writer....still working at it. How did you get where you are?

 

[SamScribble]

Yes, I write for a living.

How do you do it? Basically, you start; you keep going; and you try to get better and better and better.

I think what I have learned is this:

Start as soon as you can. If giving up your day job frightens you – really frightens you – maybe you need to learn to be happy writing for your own personal entertainment.

Write every day; learn from wherever you can. I understand it’s just about impossible to become an astronaut or a brain surgeon or a world famous chef if you are only going to practice your craft on free weekends. Becoming a proper writer is no different.

Consider everything that comes your way. Don’t be precious. You are reading this on a ‘smut’ site. I love good literate smut (but that’s the subject of another discussion). If you get a chance to practice your craft on anything (within reason), take it. I have been an advertising copywriter, a journalist, a scriptwriter, a feature writer, a short story writer, an editor, and a few other things. Happily, I have learned something – sometimes only a very little something – from every project I’ve ever worked on.

Work out whose opinion you trust. Every writer needs a friend on whom he or she can rely. (And don’t forget to say thank you when you find that special person – and thank you, again, every time they help you.)

Be prepared to be disappointed. Writing is not easy. (Hell, brain surgery is not easy – apparently.) There are lots of people who think they can write. But there are very few writers who other people want to pay to read. And the market for full-time writers shrinks with every ‘citizen writer’ who steps up.

Good luck. Good luck. And good luck again.

 

[talismania]

I also write for a living. Everything Sam said goes. Anything you can do to earn money with your writing counts toward your credentials, and that means toward fiction also. I have written and been paid for public relations copy, radio and TV commercial scripts, grants for funding university and charity projects, guide books, educational materials, medical books and news articles, essays, poetry, short stories and novels.

Every type of writing goes toward honing your skills as a writer. The writing that earns me the most money? Medical books and news. Go figure, right? But the "other writing" pays for my staying home to write the novels and smut.

Once your name gets out in a community (i.e. medical news, or radio scripts), new jobs come easier. And when it comes time to pitch your novel, being able to say you've been published or have experience in these fields puts you a step ahead of people who have no publication credits at all.

Write often and a lot. Sam writes every day. I write every weekday (though I sneak some in on weekends when on a deadline).

Always meet your deadlines. Earn a reputation for being reliable.

For fiction, produce enough quality work to build a loyal readership. People who like your work enough to continue buying it and talking about it are priceless. Publishers are wretched about supporting novels outside of those of a handful of heavy-hitters.

Also for fiction . . . writing for a living doesn't necessarily mean a steady income. Paying markets are shrinking by the day and publishers' payment schedules aren't conducive to paying regular bills. Many authors with household names keep that day job or supplement their income with other writing-related activities or projects.

Last but not least, have fun with it!

 

[yuna1981]

Yes, I write for a living.
Consider everything that comes your way. Don’t be precious. You are reading this on a ‘smut’ site. I love good literate smut (but that’s the subject of another discussion). If you get a chance to practice your craft on anything (within reason), take it. I have been an advertising copywriter, a journalist, a scriptwriter, a feature writer, a short story writer, an editor, and a few other things. Happily, I have learned something – sometimes only a very little something – from every project I’ve ever worked on.

Wow I love this advice. This sounds weird but I've been recently writing stories for the first time on Lit, and while I could certainly make them better, the fact that I do maybe only two passes through each story, and just sort of let myself go to be creative, I am finding to be extremely helpful in my other writing projects. I've read some stuff on writing and how to write more and so on, and the thing that makes us want to stop is that it feels hard. We are constantly evaluating. But it seems like it might be nice to have some venues for writing that can escape this constant, ongoing self-evaluation, and just give ourselves space to put words on paper (or a screen, as the case may be).

 

[TxRad]

I haven't quit my day job yet but then again I do my best writing at work.

I started writing late in life although the desire was there since High school. Being bored at work and having a computer with a word processor on it for the first time, I decided to try my hand at writing. A supposedly short memory from the past turned into a 283 page novel. I was hooked on writing erotica. It was fun and easy.

A non erotic short story here on Lit led to an editor at a mainstream publishing company. A friend of a friend had sent her the story since she was looking for material along the lines of the story. She contacted me and wanted to know if I had more of the same. Luckily, a friend of mine who is a name NASCAR driver and I had been working on a Semi biographical work about his days on the dirt tracks. I sent her what i had of that and after some legal wrangling it was accepted.

A lot of hard work, I hate editing, it became three books.

Now those three books are six.

I ain't making a fortune yet but it will come. The last three books won't be published until my friend retires in the not to distant future. So far his real name has not been used in the two series but when it is.... Well, things might get interesting for the whole project.

 

[Liar]

Dunno if my perspective is what you're after, but I do write for a living. Not novels and such though. Magazine/website articles and columns pay my bills.

Also scripts (screen plays, stage plays, video games) as a side business. Indie productions, so it doesn't pay much, but is great fun anyway.

To make it in the those businesses, you need three things.

1. Be good. Produce professional, readable quality pieces on topics that people want to read about.

2. Be reliable. You can't have an off day. Deliver on time and make it good enough even if you have writer's cramps and your muse is busy shtupping the procrastination fairy. Sometimes it's gritty, boring text churning. You don't have to like it, but get it done. Always be that guy they know will deliver.

3. Be a whore. Write what you are paid to write. Say yes to new work for new clients, even if it's not exactly what you wanted to do. Once you have a regular, you can start manipulating them to want you to write what you are most comfortable writing.

 

[Pure]

sam, talis, yunis, liar

hearing from writing pros is great. thanks for the posts.

i have some income from editing and the advice 'take anything', esp. at first, is excellent.

 

[sr71plt]

Most of my "work" is in writing or editing now, but I don't do it for a living. SamScribble's advice is quite sound. I waited until I didn't have to rely on either writing or editing for my livelihood before I went into it (other than writing was involved in my career too). That way I can thoroughly enjoy it without the pressure of needing it to provide a living. There's still some pressure, as it's what pays for my vacations.

 

[trysail]

Writing was a large part of my former occupation.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Anyone? My goal and dream is to be a full time writer....still working at it. How did you get where you are?

Yeah, but there's no money in it! That's why I do side jobs, like client/server programming.

 

[jayce1066]

My current gig is primarily writing. Most of it goes like "select X from Y where ....... (imagine a dozen lines of SQL)..."

 

[TE999]

Writing was a large part of my former occupation.

As was mine. After many years it became less of a challenge and more of a task to keep bread on the table. I now write for fun.

 

[estragon]

I Was Going To Say "Not I"

before I asked the right question, namely and to wit, "What do you mean by 'write as a full time job'"? Write what? Fiction only? If that's what you meant to ask, I'm out, I never did. Write anything else? I guess I've done that my entire career. As a lawyer I've gotten paid to write everything from briefs on appeal to prospectuses for public offerings to cease-and-desist letters to shopping center leases to contracts to sell businesses to income tax opinions to press releases to commercial mortgages. So if that last question was what was asked, Hell yes, I write as a full-time job, and have for the last 44 years.

 

[Carl East]

I was able to retire in the middle of 2010 as I was earning $3000 a month, more than I'd ever earned while I was working. Possibly the best advice I could give you is to set your prices low when writing an E-Book, simply because unknowns don't do well for the first few months.

Here's how it will go if you price your first book at $4.99 and I'm assuming here that your first book is a good one. It would take you literally months to get $50 a month. Here's what will happen if you price your first book at $0.99 you'll earn $50 the first month (Approximately) $100 the next and it will keep doubling until you reach about $400, this all assumes you haven't placed another book in the mix yet. So by the time you have another book ready to go to market your public will know your writing and you can comfortably charge $1.99 to $2.99 for the next book.

Using the above formula, you would be earning $1000 a month by the end of your first year. Unless, you have written a masterpiece and are noticed within the first month, in which case all bets are off because you'll be breaking out at Amazon and that's something I haven't done yet.

I wish you all good fortune in your endeavors

Carl

 

[Loring2]

That's what I do

Like Samscribble and a few others, I write for a living and that's all I do.

The only advice I have is; If you're sure this is what you want to do then "keep on keepin' on" because it usually takes time to get to be good at anything worth while.

 

[Loring2]

That's what I do

Like Samscribble and a few others, I write for a living and that's all I do.

The only advice I have is; If you're sure this is what you want to do then "keep on keepin' on" because it usually takes time to get to be good at anything worth while.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

Anyone? My goal and dream is to be a full time writer....still working at it. How did you get where you are?

Yes, I do write for a living. I suppose I could be *cute* and tell you that I work in accounting and "write" checks, lol. But no.

I do make use of my God-given writing talent in technical writing, and so in my spare time erotica is a natural sideline. Editing as well.

 

[Jake Marlow]

Writing reports is a large part of my job, but it is not a writing job. I do most of my "erotic" writing while working, though.

 

[sexual improv]

But what about…

Does anyone feel that writing as a day job conflict with writing for fun, or writing to move to that next step?

I used to make a living as a freelance reader for production companies in Hollywood. I still wrote at the time, but I also found it difficult to write my stuff because reading scripts and then writing up the coverage also required creativity. I always wrote, but the paying gigs probably slowed me down some.

Some of the projects I read ere bad but I recommended for purchase anyway; they had something or multiple things about them that made them a producible story. Some were bought.

 

[sr71plt]

Not in my case. I went home from international news agency work to writing espionage novels when I got home on my last overseas assignment--and I was always ready to write fiction (or working on plays/concerts) after a day monitoring and reporting on world news. No kids at home on the last overseas assignment, so I had plenty of time to work with.

 

[sexual improv]

I was also reading a TON of dreck too, that might have had soemthing to do with it. The most amazing part was the horrible writing that landed a name agent. I worked for one Hollywood star and one production company that had a ton of TV product, so they bought a lot.

 

[sr71plt]

I was also reading a TON of dreck too, that might have had soemthing to do with it. The most amazing part was the horrible writing that landed a name agent. I worked for one Hollywood star and one production company that had a ton of TV product, so they bought a lot.

I've worked inside publishing houses for the past fourteen years. The dreck has always been parceled out so that no one had to spend more than a couple of hours a day on "the pile." The freelance editing I've been doing at home is more a challenge to my own writing than work inside the houses--and then mainly in terms of time. And I'm not sure how much of that was wasted, because I'm usually ready to start composing as soon as I'm able to sit at the computer on my own writing.

 

[sexual improv]

I just have to find what works. Writing fits in with the current day job which counts. Thanks for the comments.