FAQ
Q: Can I repost X thing on my site/archive?
A: I'm reasonably sure I wouldn't mind, so long as you contact me
first and tell me what you would like to repost on a story archive, art archive,
or website that you run. And obviously, credit and link back here,
if including a link is possible. As I'm quite happy to share with other website owners
or join archives
and post my stuff when I get the chance,
outright thievery isn't really necessary if you want to reuse some of my content.
Q: Are you a writer?
A: Depends on what you mean by "Are you a writer?" What I suspect most people mean by this question
is "Do you make any money from writing?", in which case the answer is a big, fat no. I earn my paycheck in a wholly
different field. I am, brace yourself, a computer programmer/support type. A techie. I write mostly code,
scripts, procedure manuals and long, rambling emails explaining why something on someone's computer went boom when I am on my employer's dime. Which is not to say that
I don't have any fun writing these things. Luckily, I work in an environment where it's perfectly okay to occasionally
be something less than humorless and rigid.
Plotted stories, however? Nope. Not much call for that in the computer field,
and to the best of my recollection, I've never earned a cent from being published anywhere, so if you mean "Are you a professional writer?", no.
If you want me to get all philosophical and pedantic, though, hey, I write, don't I? Doesn't that make me a writer by definition?
Q: Do you want to be a writer?
A: Not as such. If a writing job suited to me just dropped into my lap for some reason, I would probably take up the offer.
I enjoy writing, everything from the manuals to stories, and getting paid for it would indeed be a nice thing. But am I actively trying to get published or courting jobs? No.
And usually, you have to be willing to really put yourself out there in order to get writing jobs. Competition for said jobs is
exceedingly tight. Getting published is not easy.
I mean, I once thought perhaps I would like to be a writer of some sort for a living, back when I was in school. But then again, I also once considered
being a zookeeper or a schoolteacher in that vague "That would be a cool job, wouldn't it?" way you do when you're growing up, which are job choices I
would now approach with some trepidation. No lions in the back yard, since I was in elementary school when zookeeping seemed like a good career choice,
but these days I get to experience most of the good things that made teaching seem attractive by volunteering as a Bible/Sunday School teacher. And I avoid
some of the things that would make me approach being a schoolteacher for a living with a wary eye, these days. The "hobby" is enough.
Similar thing with writing. I love it as a hobby. It's fun, it's a chance to use the bit of my brain that doesn't get such a hard workout
during the course of my regular job,
it's a good stress-buster, there's no pressure
to get something done on deadline or to please, really, anyone but yourself. That isn't so if you're writing freelance or under contract to a book
publisher. I suspect things like deadlines, word counts, editors and relying on writing to help put food on the table would suck a lot of the fun out of it for
me. I admire people who can and do promote themselves, get the attention of someone who can make a writing job happen, and make money at writing.
I'm pretty content with writing as strictly a hobby.
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