When did you decide that writing was what you wanted to do for the rest of your life? What made you want to make a career out of writing?

Did getting an MA really help you find other jobs in writing? More specifically, is an MA compared to a BA in writing something all hiring companies look for? Would I be able to make it with just a BA or should I stick it out at school for a couple more years?

Can a writer survive in todays economy? Or will there always be multiple side-jobs for todays every day writer?

Out of all the writing jobs you've had, which one did you enjoy the most, which one did you dislike the most? Why?

Can you see yourself writing for the rest of your life? Would you write even if you weren't getting paid for it? For instance, after your retired (if writers can retire and still survive that is) will you still write for fun?

In the event that I do not become a critical success or master novelist, I need to have a back up plan. My back up plan, though not ideal, would probably not have anything to do with writing. If I cannot find myself in some sort of writing field I hope to make it in the liquor industry, that's right, alcohol. Does that sound childish to you? It might, but the money, I assure you, is not. I have a way in to the career, I could become a salesmen eventually after being a merchandiser for a certain amount of time. Though, after becoming a merchandiser, I hope to move onto something else in the career. A lot of companies hire freelance writers to make ads or write columns on wine's/liquors/and beer. I find that I could probably handle both sides of this career as I am a somewhat avid drinker and writer. This would really be ideal for me, as I would still be using a degree that I paid all this money for.

Or, if that doesn't really work out and the companies I apply to already have writers and have no need of my "expertise" in the area I could do a writing gig on the side. Since I have an associates in web design and I am a huge fan of both films and music I think I could find myself writing for a publication and critiquing certain albums and/or films. My main hopes would be to get into the music-media site called pitchfork. Most of the new music I listen to comes from here so getting a job as a critical writer there would be perfect. I could listen to all the new music I want to and then write about what I've found in my musings. I pretty much do that on an almost regular basis as is, with telling my friends about a new album that just released or a new EP that they should really check out. Usually my critiques go over well with my friends. Even when I trash the work of a particular artist, the reader usually can find some sort of humor to find themselves wrapped up in between the harsher critique.

The act of becoming a successful and published writer is slowly becoming more clear to me that it’s not exactly easy to do. Reading these articles, which tell about how certain writers have had to overcome hardships, adversity, within even themselves and family/friends, to publish something meaningful to both them and their respective editors/publishers has shown me something. What that is exactly has become more apparent as I read each article. That “thing” that I’ve been shown is determination and even more importantly, time. 

In one article a woman talks about how she wrote for 8 hours everyday, being a stay at home mom I’m sure that meant she had to conduct her free time wisely. She stated something along the lines of making her husband do the grocery shopping and picking up the kids from school and/or other afterschool activities.

Now, first off, I would like to state, I’m not trying to be sexist or biased about stay-at-home mothers (or I’d at least like to think I’m not). Though, we all don’t have time or luxury to do what she did to become published. I can’t just decide to up and quit my job and start writing from home for 8 hours a day, every day, even as much as I would love to. I have to work; I need money, so my free time is few and far between, and would continue to be even if I weren’t attending college. That’s not to say what she did did not require determination and an impeccable amount of personal will power. Just the act of keeping myself away from screwing around between facebook and other social outlets found online is hard to do. So, I do have a lot of respect for these writers who actually made it to the "big times" and finally got published.  It’s just I don’t have the time or money to go away to a retreat in Colorado every weekend to look at a woods and ponder different ideas for my writing.

Another writer I read about in the articles was actually in a hospital for most of his days while he wrote. This guy actually had his idea come to him through his own physical trauma while in a hospital bed with Crohns Disease. So he spent his days and nights absorbing the people and personal problems around him so he could have a fresh account of ideas to take into his non-fiction piece. This is probably the only way I would be able to have the time to dedicate myself to my writing and making it good enough for publication.

Which has got me thinking. Maybe I should throw myself down a flight of stairs, “accidentally” of course, I bet that would make for a pretty interesting piece, wouldn’t it? So, from this point forward, I’ll be on the lookout for the next time I’m laid up for awhile with an exorbitant amount of free time. Hopefully I wont be in too much pain to spend some time with my lap top.

While reading for the class, professions in writing, I found that one reading really stuck out for me more than the other three. That certain reading was written by Steve Salerno, in which it discussed ten different writing situations that college does not prepare for you. Upon reading this I was sort of flabbergasted by what I wasn't thinking about as I spent these past few years in college for writing arts. It basically gave me a realistic idea of what it was going to be like trying to get a job in a writing career after I graduate. I knew it would be hard, but I didn't know it would be quite like this. Steve spoke about how when you grab a magazine or journal, you see a very select few people listed under the title of "writer". Most, in fact, are editors and by being an editor for x amount of year, you may manage to find your into that company. Though even that seems like a big break for such a common goal of a writer.

Besides that Steve talked about how trying to get something, really anything, published was a writers best bet at having a career in the field. You need to get your work out there, as I knew, just not to the degree he spoke of. I haven't even managed to have one piece of my writing published, nor have I even tried. This kind of makes me worry that I should be jumping into trying to get into the school newspaper or maybe some freelancing gig for a website or something of that sort. I also learned that being a writer does not mean you'll like what you're writing about. Often times writers have to pretend to be interested in what they're writing. Thankfully, I am good at the art of BS, so even if I landed a job at a hospital journal as an editor (like one of my friends currently is) I would be deeply grateful for it. All this talk about writing and careers makes me really want to get more involved with my writing. I need to take the time to write some well thought out pieces, that or find a new career path.