Are you looking to be a serious writer, or is it just a hobby?

@JHM Details, details...

But it's not "entirely" out of my hands, since I am responsible for the quality of the work.

edited 1st Jun '12 10:17:54 PM by Teraus

"You cannot judge a system if your judgement is determined by the system."

Just a hobby (cause I know that's all it is going to be)

http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/ http://sagan4.com/forum/index.php

I'm really not looking to be real serious. It's a really good hobby for me, though. I like the idea of crafting whole new worlds and people, and tying it all together with a story and motives.

There is an easier way to lose

Actively trying to be published. As in I just sent my eight query letter to an agent a few days ago, and I have many more I want to send out. Like, I want to be published now serious. ^_^

You and I should be query buddies, Da Games! If nothing else, you just reminded me I should get to sending out more queries.

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

I already am professional. Nonfiction, Web stuff though, not published fiction yet.

Swordplay and writing blog. Purveyor of weeaboo fightin' magic.

I first I had dreams of getting published and being famous. I started so many different stories, none of which were very good. After several years of this, I realized that I didn't care because what I really wanted was to just write.

Looking for some stories?

It's just a hobby for now, but I would love to be able to pursue it as a career.

Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.

Serious. There are some things that I write just for fun, such as fanfiction. For the most part, though, writing is something I take seriously. I take creative writing classes, try to write a little every day, and am aiming to get something published.

What's the point in giving up when you know you'll never stop anyway?

I've been thinking over this question since I started following Writing Excuses. I am a really good writer,*

I've enjoyed telling stories since I was a child, and I am probably one of the most stubborn/determined/resolute people in — I don't know.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to much writing for various reasons.

edited 24th Jun '12 8:14:56 PM by EldritchBlueRose

Has ADD, plays World of Tanks, thinks up crazy ideas like children making spaceships for Hitler. Occasionally writes them down.

Originally, I meant this as a hobby. But recent... turns of events in my life pretty much forced me into position of looking for artistic fulfillment to have a chance of doing -anything- succesfully, so here I am. Not that I mind it much.

Serious, definitely.

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

It's complicated and there are many tears to be shed... or I'm just being overdramatic. Well I used to be interested in game development, but then things did not go right. One disaster after another, I ended up making writing serious for real as I realized it was my true passion from an open mic in high school, reading my poetry for a contest, and creating a literary magazine in high school alongside my school newspaper articles that I became known as an excellent writer at the time. I realized writing was what I truly cared about in the end.

“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.” ― Stephen King http://thespellcraftcolumn.wordpress.com/

I've been writing for years, but never tried to have anything published because I didn't think it was good enough. I'm really hoping the novel I'm working on now will be publishable and well liked.

If not, well, I have a couple other books i want to write before I die and hopefully one, if not all, of them will be publishable.

edited 10th Jul '12 7:32:50 PM by hpl

I've worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

I've been writing hobbistically for a long time now, but recently decided to make something marketable and... archetypal enough. So I do hope I will be able to be a serious writer. Time will tell if I succeed at that.

edited 11th Jul '12 3:46:57 AM by Kalontas

A serious hobby, like many in the thread have already said. It would be AWESOME to become a professional screenwriter, because odds are with the degree I chose I'm gonna end up falling into some random job I don't feel terribly strongly about, and because film/narrative art in general (but film specifically) is the love of my life, not to mention I'd still (probably, hopefully) continue writing as a hobby even after finding a steady career. On the flip side, many people have the same dream and few make it, and so far my track record includes one completed generic, unlikable character ridden, poorly plotted, hallucinatory psychological thriller and countless half baked ideas that never came to fruition. It is something I've been driven to take up more consistently and seriously recently, however, now that the bad taste of my failures has been given time to leave my mouth. And even if writing is just a hobby, I think those who are interested in the field should still be constantly looking to better themselves.

edited 26th Jul '12 9:41:44 PM by tilitzd

Serious. Of course I have fun with it, but it being fun is all part of the thing that makes me serious about it.

Improving as an author, one video at a time.

Career writer. I'm poking at a dozen short stories at any given time, searching for contests or submissions, a couple of novel ideas. Trying to edge into scriptwriting because I like films, too.

My ultimate plan is to be a wildlife (specifically, bird) scientist as my day job, whilst writing (both fiction and quite possibly nonfiction) professionally at night, when I'm generally feeling more creative anyway. In fact, this is pretty much what I already do, spending my days watching birds (and movies) and my nights writing (and watching movies). Of course, I don't get paid to do either, but it still feels good knowing other people can be affected by what I do - I put my bird sightings on eBird, an online database for birders worldwide that enables us to track bird distributions and keep detailed records, and my various pieces of fiction on Fan Fiction and Fiction Press. The things I want to publish someday in book form, however, I'm keeping safe and slowly perfecting until they're ready to be sent to publishers.

As serious as a heart attack.

Writing is an old hobby that I'm trying to get back into. The publishing world is too fickle for me to consider it as a full-time career.

"Steel wins battles. Gold wins wars."

I haven't really written very much, but I'd like to try and see if I could make a decent side income self-publishing e-books. I'd sell them cheap and pander to a certain demographic. Hell I bet I could just take Asstr kiddie sex stories, change names and make all sex scenes involve adults, and sell those. What court would find for a bunch of pedophiles?