Careers In Writing

Fiction Writer: All Jobs are Tough
The first piece of advice I have for people who want to be writers is "Write!" The second: "Get people to read your stuff no matter what the medium and figure out a way to make money at it." You can't just "be a writer" these days. You have to market yourself; moreover, you have to know your market and how to reach it, whether independently or through the standard "submissions" process.

Writer/Editor: Associate editor
Be prepared to work very hard for very little money. Still, you'll have a good time. You're life won't be 'Gossip Girls' but if you will probably end up at some parties where Matthew Perry is wandering around trying, and failing, to pick up girls.

Writer/Editor: Working with Crazies
Wow, I just read a review on this site by a fiction writer...I think I worked with that guy before. He was an asshole, always lamenting his sorry plight until his search for pity made you sick, deep in your guts. He’s not without a point, writing is, in fact hard, but for Christ’s sake, it isn’t that bad. Well, I’m an editor, which is not so laborious, not so difficult. It takes patience, sure, but overall it’s a really fun job.

Fiction Writer: More Laborious Than Labor
The hardest job in the world. If you’re not ready for that, if you think writing is just a leisurely activity and you can make it a profession and not have to work, you’re dead wrong, and you should prepare yourself for struggle. First: the act of writing, alone, is extremely complicated. To come up with a story is not necessarily a hard thing to do, sometimes it comes to you in total completion, but figuring out the best way to tell that story is almost impossible. And then, when you have compl...