As an aside, this site is a bit of a hidden secret for magazine writers, because: nobody remembers all the grammar rules:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
Great for looking up things like, "does the comma go inside or outside the quotation marks..." when getting ready to send that article off to a team of editors.
Apparently the (once seemingly stable) rules are in flux. I've seen a lot of discussion online in recent months about using commas (for clarity) in locations where once they were anathema.Originally Posted by Sidheshooter
(Commas omitted to further add to the confusion.)
There's nothing civil about this war.
Don't even get me started on double spacing after a period.
Maybe the default position should be to defer to Tam and her bicycle riding vegan friends.Would save a lot of unnecessary mental wear and tear and at the rate my brain cells seem to be abandoning ship, that can only be a good thing.
There's nothing civil about this war.
Tam is a great example of someone who just went out and made it work. Even if she does have the toyota prius of lawnmowers.
Lots of good advice in this thread. Most of my income from 1995-2005 was from writing. I was passionate and read obsessively about the subject matter, and along the way earned an engineering degree that set me head and shoulders above most writers in the field in technical areas. The contacts I made gave me a place to go when it was time to bail, and writing has continued to be an amplifier for all my other skills. It's a fundamental foundation of where I am now.
I was fortunate, in that I got in just as things were really getting awesome, and got out before the collapse of print. There are only a handful of places where a talented person in that field would want to work full-time now, and a lot of frankly hacks competing for the scraps of internet feed. Firearms would be even harder. You're competing with guys like John Barsness on the one hand, TTAG and every YouTube channel on the other, and the subject-matter obsessed people on every forum on yet another. Guys here like GJM and DB have the decades of experience and study in specialized knowledge. Someone who is reasonably intelligent and just dives in and lives a single model or family of firearms will end up learning more and giving away much of it for free (i.e., "the list" of mil-spec AR components). It's damn hard to compete with people who work for free. Guns are also far more accessible than what I wrote about. A regular guy can get hold of one and put together 1000 words about it pretty easily. Much more difficult with systems that cost five or six figures.
The best training in writing I received in college was from the "you're in college now" freshman seminar class taught by a biologist. In his field, the rule is, "Publish or die." He had some wisdom and skills, and passed them along. The building blocks that made that useful for me went back to fourth grade, and got strong in junior high. The only high school English class I remember being excited about writing in was junior year.
The best editor I ever had went on to much bigger and better things. There were a few years where it seemed like everybody with any talent was working for him. Then that business decided to change their model, and the fun has mostly gone out of their world. It's still a great company in a great location, so most people are staying. But the bar for talent to be successful has also gotten a little lower.
The big idea that your best option is to just start writing is absolutely sound. A degree means nothing. The quality of your work is everything. If you have the money to put toward a degree in writing, use it to eat while you actually write and get better. You'll either get somewhere or not, but you'll be far ahead of having paid for school and not yet really tried.
I personally know exactly one guy who makes his living as a freelancer. He has been doing it since the '80s. He got into the business by writing and laying out an entire hypothetical issue of the magazine he wanted to work for as a "demo roll," and then showing it to the editor. He hustles like no one else. It's a business, and he sells the hell out of it. He's also remarkably talented and funny. Everyone else I know who is a freelancer has other income, is independently wealthy, or comfortably retired, and writing is just something they do to keep their spouse from kicking them out of the house, or as a well-known line put it, go on "all-expenses paid luxury vacations with people you don't like." Sitting around a table listening to a bunch of them talking about the trips they'd been on that year and the free gourmet meals, etc., instead of anything that mattered, was one of the crystallizing moments where I knew I would be out soon.
Typing all day is not easy on the hands. I've been more sensitive to overuse ever since I ran a saw in a construction operation when I was 18, due to the combination of heavy use moving lumber and the vibration of the saw handle. You might have similar issues. I wear out a Logitech K350 keyboard every 6-12 months, and writing isn't my primary function. The keyboards still work perfectly, but the cushioning is gone. They changed their supply base a couple years ago, and don't have the awesome out-of-the-box feel they used to have, but they break in OK. There is no better keyboard I know.
Don't overlook the unique skills and knowledge you have. I'd imagine that after several decades of working on aircraft, you've learned some technical details and wisdom that aren't in manuals or most formal training. Or, "This is why the manuals say to do it this way" type lessons. There might be an opportunity in the aviation world somewhere to pass that stuff along. For example, I have a story about a simple 1/8 NPT brass fitting, less than $3 at most hardware stores, that cost probably $30-40k and shut down a promising racing program, and how that's a foundation of my technical OCD. War stories from someone who's been there are harder for people who haven't been there to compete with.
Another detail to consider. It's crossed my mind that if I was to write about firearms for profit, it could be construed that I was operating a firearms-related business. Which, depending on how a DA might choose to approach it, could make the legal status of something like completing an 80 percent lower, selling arms I own, or various other gunsmith-like activities sufficiently ambiguous as to cost far more to defend than I could ever hope to earn by the writing. Seems less of a concern in 2017, but in a world of administrative SS109/M855 ban attempts, "Operation Choke Point" and guidance on who is a firearms dealer that basically says, "You're a dealer if we say you're a dealer," it has kept me from getting started, even though I've been invited to do so by a friend who is a publisher.
Last edited by OlongJohnson; 08-29-2017 at 11:16 AM.
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Leveraging what you already know seems like a good idea. What type of admin jobs are in your industry? How about management or sales? Selling could be selling the service (maintenance) or the parts/tools that go into it. You must know a lot of sales guys - might be worth talking to them. If you will be getting into writing you will be doing a ton of selling in a much less favorable environment.
I hate sales. I'm not discounting writing about aviation, but I haven't really given that much thought.
I'm not going to be focusing just on writing about firearms. I'm also going to write fiction. In fact, I'm working on a short story right now. A murder investigation in a fantasy setting
We wish to thank the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, without whose assistance this program would not have been possible.
Much of my work when writing full time was about building contacts and relationships, and most of the rest was communicating with people about product. When I ejected, it was into sales. Which was about building contacts and relationships, and communicating with people about product. Helping people find the product that is right for them, and helping them get it delivered. It wasn't about seeing people as a mark and "working" them. The best sales people help their customers solve their problems and be more successful.
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Not another dime.
I am not a writer but me and my wife both have bachelors of fine arts degree. My advice to anyone who wants to make a living being creative is just start creating in whatever your chosen media is. Find a mentor and put in the hours. College in my opinion is a waste you can find established writer that teach creative writing classes. Those who can do and those that can't teach is often the case when it comes to the creative arts and formal training.
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