I want to be a writer, but everyone tells me I'm going to starve.

Post your best writing

Write a cook book.

Write it on rice paper.

Then even if it fails you won't starve.

>>18080421
I want to go to college to study and learn how to write.

>inb4 debt
not american.

>>18080411
>get normal job
>write on side
>sell book
>quit normal job

Not hard op

>>18080411

Completely ignoring the fact that I haven't read any of your writing, I wanted to be a writer too, and got told by my parents that I could either pick English and start paying for school myself, or pick another degree, because they refused to let their money go to waste.

Here I am 9 years later in a marketing job that I can barely stand, and of course, we have an entire team of 7 fucking English majors whose only job it is to write copy for our websites, blogs, internal and external collateral, and more. And they get paid nearly what I do.

Anyways, yeah, you might not hit it big and write a book, but there are jobs out there if you have a good portfolio and stick to your dreams. Best of luck, dude.

>>18080434
is advertising a good job for literature people?

>>18080430

Stop it with the "do this on the side" shit. If you have a real, "professional" job, you come home mentally drained after 9 hours of focus on something else. By the time you've commuted home, worked out, and made dinner, you probably have about two hours to decompress from the day before you need to go to bed and start all over.

Really good work takes time and a clear mind.

>>18080437

Not really. I don't get much say in what our overall marketing message is going to be, or what's going to be written in that message. Now, if you can find a job as a copywriter, it's not too bad. But for me, who is in "digital marketing," it's not really my job to be creative, but to look at the numbers and put things into place to best convert into sales.

No creativity. In fact, writing this and explaining it is making my chest tighten with how much I hate my career. Fun.

>>18080445
yeah, but I wonder if at least you pay your bills.

that's my main concern, should I move from studying STEM (which I hate) to literature?

>>18080449

I make nearly six figures and with my next promotion, will. I could move to another state and likely hit six figures. I did just switch companies to something a little less stressful, but it still doesn't make up for it.

Money isn't everything. But also, keep in mind, "paying your bills" really isn't all that hard. A bunch of people without degrees manage to pay bills their entire lives. It may not be glamorous, but it's stupid to think that the only thing that is going to give you a livable wage is STEM.

Think about it though... If you hate STEM now, doesn't it seem likely you're going to hate STEM for the next 45 years you're stuck working in it? That's a long fucking time.

>>18080440
you cannot start out an artistic job from day one, because you lack the skill and therefore the audience and therefore the income. You _need_ to do it on the side, unless you've got a giant leap of cash on the side or you get lucky.

>>18080411
If you actually want to do writing purely for writing's sake, write in your free time while you do a real simple manual job part time (60-80% which should be livable in europe), and think about your writing during the job.

Starting to write a book tomorrow will make you starve, your friends are correct about that. There's a statistic somewhere out there, which says something along the lines of "95% of books published never sell more than a few hundred units". It's just not feasible.

you should really ask yourself if university / studying literature would actually have a chance at making you a better writer. You could also get some textbooks on literature, many many novels, and then read read read. Systematically, analyse it and shit. And then write write write. If doing that if impossible for you because you're on 4chan all day, I doubt that being an independent author is going to work out.

If you say writing, do you refer to classic book authorship only, or is writing like scripts or whatever for the entertainment industry acceptable as well?

>>18080526
OP here.

I really like script writing for film and tv.

I suppose college may give me a better chance because is supposed that college will teach you how to write.

>but debt
not american

>>18080411

why not just do it as a hobby then? most writers all had to do it as a hobby that they later got paid for and even after getting paid they still had to work other jobs.

my ex is a published author of 5 books now, no not self published, legit published, one was even a best seller.

he still has a day job.

This one is easy. Just get enough work to support you while you pursue your craft. All you need is a word processor and the internet, so that should be pretty easy to maintain. We live in a luxurious time where free time is pouring out of our asses and we don't know what to do with it - I don't really buy that you couldn't work a 20-40 hour week and still write.

I know what you're probably looking for (unless you already know) is the practical above advice *and* to hear, "Yeah, you can do it! You'd make an excellent writer!"

People can be so discouraging, you know? Sometimes there's a wall up where people don't know how to reassure each other, but others will breach that wall just to say nasty shit like that you will starve.

Understand?

>>18080531
where are you from OP?

>>18080531
>>but debt
>not american
I know. There's still a chance that it's nothing but a massive waste of time, at least if you want to go independent. The people you're trying to sell your book to will not care whether you studied literature/english or linguistics. Future employers maybe.

>is supposed that college will teach you how to write.
do you have data/evidence from which you draw this conclusion? What kind of college (you keep using that term even though you're not american) and what kind of program do you intend to enroll?
There is a thing about university that people who haven't been there usually don't know. Studies in physics don't teach you how to be a physicist, they teach you physics (entirely separate things). The guy sitting in front lecturing you is at uni because he wants to do research, has done research all his life, and to do research he reluctantly has to teach new students (terms set by the university). But he only teaches what he knows, which is his knowledge of physics and his specific niche. He couldn't do any of the work people with physics degrees in industry do (like constructing bridges or whatever), cannot teach you how to be a physicist, and does not do so, because that's not the societal role of university.
The guy who's been in academia doing literature science all his life will not necessarily be at all capable of writing any decent story. That's not what he does. People who love writing and are great at it do not stay in academia, which is not that nonsensical because being good at writing is not what matters there.

>>18080539
this.

>>18080575
south america (Colombia).

Get a standard job to support your writing while you practice and get good enough to get recognized.

My husband and I are co-writers. We both find time to write around both full-time jobs and parenting. We've published our first book to great success, and the second is at the editor right now.

This is how most artists learn to make their way. It's difficult to find time sometimes, but it is feasible. The better of a 9 to 5 you can get, the easier it will be. You can also change the kind of work you do to suit your writing. If you have a desk job, you can write when you have a spare moment. Not so much when you're a cashier. If you have a job like truck driving or something where you're alone and your mind is idle, you can try writing by speaking to your phone. It will transcribe what you say, and then you can go back and edit/fix issues later.

>>18080526
Art history (visual arts) tells me you need to go to academy and have a mentor for like, ever until you can git good and still be poor as hell unless you do murals

>>18080590
isn't like 5 years in college give you plenty of time to become good?

also take into account you'll have teachers in college who will help you to improve.

>>18080579
If I were you I would meet a few people who are pursuing writing and have studies in the uni you wish and ask them all sorts ot things - if you think that it's worth it than follow your dreams. If not just let writing be your hobby and write for the sake of writing itself and than as you write more you'll become better at it and eventually publish your work. I'm an artist and I'll tell you no one has come up with a formula for making art. Just do what you love and you'll get better at it.

>>18080603
yeah if you want to be schooled in how to write. college is obviously great and important, but it's not the only way to learn something. I always associated college with learning and getting credentials. you can learn to become a good writer without college.

a degree in writing is like saying to employers "give me a full time career writing" and you know not everyone gets that. I see a lot of writers working shitty jobs because a degree doesn't mean you start writing for the New York Times or getting a published book.

>>18080603
>>18080617
I'm talking about working a job 20-40 hours and then writing some damn good shit on your time off

if the end goal is just writing itself, this could be even better for your writing...to not be an engfag and to just experience mainstream life.

>>18080603
Here's the thing with college. It can be really helpful for people who don't know how to start, who need to learn a necessary skill that cannot be learned on your own, or for people who are generally unmotivated.

But for other people, particularly in a creative field, it can be a huge waste of waste of time and/or money. If you have bad teachers or an unhelpful curriculum, then it won't help you at all. You'll spend five years working on projects that you won't be able to use once you graduate.

If you are driven enough to work on your own without being babysat, it can be better to pursue your own projects instead of going to school for it.

>>18080679
sorry, but I've fail for this meme shit advice.

I wasted several years.
I'm now 27, no degree and no skill to show off.

At least with a degree I could find a job, not a single employee will look at my CV and think: wow, this guy knows his shit.

sorry, but a degree is necesary, at least to find a job.

>>18080684
in a creative field, you don't have an employer, and no publisher or design studio cares about your degree if the manuscript or the portfolio you sent in is shit.

You don't learn any (useful) skill related to your field at university, only knowledge, and that too only sporadic and not in a way that it sticks. If you really want to become knowledgable about a topic in a manner that you still remember anything in a few years, a lot more dedication than what lets you succeed as a student in uni as well as a fit-for-your-needs plan of teaching yourself is necessary, and at that point university's scheme of education only gets in your way.

>not a single employee will look at my CV and think: wow, this guy knows his shit.
That's true of people with degrees as well (unless it's like all perfect scores). For the degree holders they think: "Okay, I have proof that this person is capable of basic problem solving as well as organising the way they work* and they have some rudimentary general knowledge** about the field we work in." That's why people with degrees are hired. And ye, it's true that a degree is necessary for many jobs. But don't think that these jobs are somehow more fulfilling than some trivial manual labor. Maybe it gets boring, repetitive and depressing after 1.5 years instead of 3 months, but does that really matter?
People are expected to do an internship first for a reason. There they learn what actually matters on the job, which is not a lot of things and basically nothing that is taught at a university.

* and all the other shit that's necessary to do well as a student in uni
** 90% of which will be redundant, regardless of where you apply.

>>18080733
self teaching is crap.

t. being doing self teaching for 12 years, now I'm going to college.

>>18080750
doing both is best. university libraries are great places to work, and some courses are decent as well.

>>18080603
College sucks dick for writing. Don't do it. You can learn more about writing good on the internet than you can at college.

There are already a ton of really good writers who have made youtube channels on how to write better. And some of them have already gone through college and their videos are actually something you can learn at your own pace without having to care about debt or anything. So they're very experienced and are giving you better knowledge than you'd get if you went to college.


College in general is an outdated horribly shitty system for educating people. It is BEYOND retarded that you actually have to pay any amount of money to get an education. Any barrier to education is stupid. Especially a barrier as ridiculous as thousands of dollars.
Tell college to go fuck itself. Use the internet instead.

I have actually met successful artists who credit most of their improvement to youtube and just reading books on how to get better that were written by the best people out there.
Do not listen to any of the naysayers. Do not listen to them. Yes you can become a good writer. Yes you can.

>>18080424
What type of writing?

>>18080750
Self teaching is amazing. You just had a really bad way of going about trying to teach yourself. No offense or anything.

You should have tried to include information on getting better from the best people out there on what you want to learn how to do. Should have checked to see if there were any reputable places that were teaching your skill by people who have already gotten a good education on it. Because then you're learning from somebody who's basically already done what you'd go through in college. Without actually needing to go to college yourself.

You don't need college for most things. It is a waste of money. Stay away from it in general.
It is a horrible outdated system that robs people of money and throws them in debt.

I am actually really surprised that there hasn't been a history changing uprising from the people about having to pay money for college. It really should have happened by now.

Any excuse they have for needing that much money from you is total nonsense. They could easily find better reasons to have you pay nothing if they looked hard enough.

>>18080411

Read Jack London's life story, faggot.

>>18081221
no he should read hennry miller ya stoopid cunt

>>18081249

Elaborate cuntrag. I am telling him to read London because he was the original rags-to-riches-and-mad-bitches author. He also knew what was up.

Who the fuck is Henry Miller and why should we care?