5 ms·

When I grew up I wanted to be a writer. Even now I spend at least an hour a day writing, usually a lot more. You can't really tell because my writing style is

When I grew up I wanted to be a writer. Even now I spend at least an hour a day writing, usually a lot more. You can't really tell because my writing style is pretty awful, but I've developed an ability to explain things pretty well. I should probably write How to books :-) My parents (especially my father) were absolutely against the idea and since I also spent insane amount of times programming, I became a programmer (with a very insane and fleeting period in university where I thought it might be a good idea to be a physicist...) It's one of those things where you always wonder in the back of your head if it was the right choice. What would it have been like if I had studied writing and literature instead of computer science in school. Very likely, I think I would be writing something similar to this article. It's a tough gig and it's getting tougher by the day. I can't help but think, though, that I've met a fair number of programmers who find themselves in a similar situation. They get out of a job, go for a while and then just can't seem to get back in. Then what? Do you struggle to make it? Do you cut your losses and try something else? What if that doesn't work? It's a scary thing to contemplate.

lallysingh 7y ago
I think it depends on the kind of writing Have to considered blogging? Or do you only want to do news that you travel for? Programmers do 'control the means of production' when it comes to text on the web. Many programmers I know try and do both, with the other being a hobby that can get involved. Programmers have it really good right now, and that's really good motivation for staying in the field.
Veen 7y ago
If you were to leave development to pursue a career as a journalist, novelist, or non-fiction writer, it would be a hard slog. However, you already have a technical background, and technical writing is well paid. Also, executives at technology companies are rarely good writers, so there’s a market for people who can ghost write and blog for them (it’s how I make a living).
- owenwil 7y ago
  I left a development career to pursue a career as a journalist (in technology) and spent a number of years doing that, but eventually burnt out on the click-driven fest that is that space. I'm now self-employed, but I make a great living as a freelance explainer, essentially. I help a lot of big and small companies better talk to their customers in particularly technical segments—it turns out that almost all of the writers or communicators in the tech industry literally have no experience either building or implementing products. It's turned out to be a great niche! I actually also wield that in a form of explaining the news, from that perspective, to help others who might be trying to transition into the industry as well in a newsletter: https://char.gd/recharged https://char.gd/recharged. All of this is to say: being a writer actually provides _so many_ transferable skills. It's just a shame that the skill itself isn't valued in isolation.
  - swtrs 7y ago
    Can I poke on how you transitioned? It was brought to me by a great colleague that I write and train technical and non-technical people well and want to see if its something I can do full time (contrasting my relatively boring ops eng day job.)
    - owenwil 7y ago
      Sure! just ping me: owen [at] char.gd
turk73 7y ago
Your parents were right--every dipshit English major with no talent thinks they can be a writer. It's a crowded field and hard to break out with so many competing products looking for eyeballs. The irony is it has never been cheaper to get a book published and find an audience, but that just opened the floodgates. For example, my neighbor wrote a couple of fantasy novels that he sells on Amazon as e-books. I don't think he has sold many copies. But you can make a start if you desire to. It's like starting a band. Anyways, don't feel bad because coding is creative work. BTW, I have been semi-successful at writing--I was a sports writer for a local newspaper before I went to college. Later on, I had a chapter in a compendium on Internet privacy that was a top seller on Amazon. That's a tiny taste of success, right? It's not the same as fiction, I know. Do journal publications count? I have tons of those... I got paid by the word for the sports articles. I did the book chapter for free. The rest was grant-funded. I gave up when I shouldn't have, but it was right when my first child was born and the free time wasn't there anymore.
- SolaceQuantum 7y ago
  > The irony is it has never been cheaper to get a book published and find an audience, but that just opened the floodgates. It's actually true that it's never been cheaper to get a book published and find an audience. But when you're self publishing, you're no longer purely a writer in the truest sense. In order for your work to succeed, you must pick up the slack that a publishing company would ordinarily do for you. You must market your work, design an attactive cover, preferrably have a professional editor tear your piece asunder, and build your reputation among the general fanbase of your genre as a producer of enjoyable pieces. Given the above it's "easier" than ever to become a full time self published author (dependent on your genre- fantasy is one of the few genres that has a relatively high chance of succeeding on pure self-publish basis. The best chance is as a romance author).
- Mirioron 7y ago
  If you want to write turn you should do it as a web novel. Go to one of the sites (like royalroad) and consistently publish chapters. You don't even have to be good at writing for people to read it. Some will even give you money, but it's probably not comparable to what you'd make in programming. And when I say that you don't have to be good at it, I mean that some people in these communities read machine translated stories. What matters is consistency and volume of releases.
golergka 7y ago
I'm in a very similar boat, with a musical side-projects and some DJing gigs from time to time. Sometimes I think about what it would be like if I went into music full-time, but the thing is, I actually like programming (spending two-week vacation learning Haskell right now, for example), so it doesn't really feel like such a tragic choice.

lallysingh 7y ago

I think it depends on the kind of writing Have to considered blogging? Or do you only want to do news that you travel for? Programmers do 'control the means of production' when it comes to text on the web. Many programmers I know try and do both, with the other being a hobby that can get involved. Programmers have it really good right now, and that's really good motivation for staying in the field.

Veen 7y ago

If you were to leave development to pursue a career as a journalist, novelist, or non-fiction writer, it would be a hard slog. However, you already have a technical background, and technical writing is well paid. Also, executives at technology companies are rarely good writers, so there’s a market for people who can ghost write and blog for them (it’s how I make a living).

owenwil 7y ago
I left a development career to pursue a career as a journalist (in technology) and spent a number of years doing that, but eventually burnt out on the click-driven fest that is that space. I'm now self-employed, but I make a great living as a freelance explainer, essentially. I help a lot of big and small companies better talk to their customers in particularly technical segments—it turns out that almost all of the writers or communicators in the tech industry literally have no experience either building or implementing products. It's turned out to be a great niche! I actually also wield that in a form of explaining the news, from that perspective, to help others who might be trying to transition into the industry as well in a newsletter: https://char.gd/recharged https://char.gd/recharged. All of this is to say: being a writer actually provides _so many_ transferable skills. It's just a shame that the skill itself isn't valued in isolation.
- swtrs 7y ago
  Can I poke on how you transitioned? It was brought to me by a great colleague that I write and train technical and non-technical people well and want to see if its something I can do full time (contrasting my relatively boring ops eng day job.)
  - owenwil 7y ago
    Sure! just ping me: owen [at] char.gd

turk73 7y ago

Your parents were right--every dipshit English major with no talent thinks they can be a writer. It's a crowded field and hard to break out with so many competing products looking for eyeballs. The irony is it has never been cheaper to get a book published and find an audience, but that just opened the floodgates. For example, my neighbor wrote a couple of fantasy novels that he sells on Amazon as e-books. I don't think he has sold many copies. But you can make a start if you desire to. It's like starting a band. Anyways, don't feel bad because coding is creative work. BTW, I have been semi-successful at writing--I was a sports writer for a local newspaper before I went to college. Later on, I had a chapter in a compendium on Internet privacy that was a top seller on Amazon. That's a tiny taste of success, right? It's not the same as fiction, I know. Do journal publications count? I have tons of those... I got paid by the word for the sports articles. I did the book chapter for free. The rest was grant-funded. I gave up when I shouldn't have, but it was right when my first child was born and the free time wasn't there anymore.

SolaceQuantum 7y ago
> The irony is it has never been cheaper to get a book published and find an audience, but that just opened the floodgates. It's actually true that it's never been cheaper to get a book published and find an audience. But when you're self publishing, you're no longer purely a writer in the truest sense. In order for your work to succeed, you must pick up the slack that a publishing company would ordinarily do for you. You must market your work, design an attactive cover, preferrably have a professional editor tear your piece asunder, and build your reputation among the general fanbase of your genre as a producer of enjoyable pieces. Given the above it's "easier" than ever to become a full time self published author (dependent on your genre- fantasy is one of the few genres that has a relatively high chance of succeeding on pure self-publish basis. The best chance is as a romance author).
Mirioron 7y ago
If you want to write turn you should do it as a web novel. Go to one of the sites (like royalroad) and consistently publish chapters. You don't even have to be good at writing for people to read it. Some will even give you money, but it's probably not comparable to what you'd make in programming. And when I say that you don't have to be good at it, I mean that some people in these communities read machine translated stories. What matters is consistency and volume of releases.

golergka 7y ago

I'm in a very similar boat, with a musical side-projects and some DJing gigs from time to time. Sometimes I think about what it would be like if I went into music full-time, but the thing is, I actually like programming (spending two-week vacation learning Haskell right now, for example), so it doesn't really feel like such a tragic choice.