How are the aspiring writers on this board spending their 20s?
1. NEETing and focusing entirely on your writing
2. Working full-time and effectively putting off serious writing until you can afford to take a year or so off
3. Working part-time and focusing on writing primarily with a job to make rent
4. Clinging to academia (MFA, MA, etc) while attempting to publish something, with the fall-back being an academic job
I think those are the options available.
Daniel Lewis
5. Dropping out of academia repeatedly while dallying with writing to keep your hand in at the same time as having some semblance of an interesting life as a youth lived, until it's time to take writing seriously.
David Cook
That's just 1 AND 4.
Ryder Russell
Number 4: although bonus points cause I get acedemia bux, and I'm not trying to publish, just trying to write.
Nolan Rodriguez
Not really, it involves more sex and drugs and less academia with no fallback.
Evan Rogers
3, It's pretty comfy honestly.
Sebastian Miller
2 but I actually do seriously write. I have no friends or family so I have time.
Elijah Campbell
4. my plan was to go for a phd but it's starting to dawn on me that being a degenerate piece of shit with Veeky Forums and vidya and napping every day between junk food meals isn't really the way to carve a path toward a doctorate. everyone in my classes is way more self-possessed and confident and articulate than me and it's starting to really weigh on me. been depressed as shit. probably gonna switch to 2 after my mediocre thesis is done.
Michael Brown
None of the above. I spent the early part of my 20s getting an education I will never use (B.A. in philosophy and then a law degree), my mid-20s partying, drinking heavily and doing excessive amounts of drugs, and getting arrested several times for stupid minor things, and now spending my late 20s (about to be 29) getting my shit together and getting a teaching certificate to teach high school english. All the while I've written sporadically, short stories, poetry, microfiction, but I've never thought any of it to be worthwhile and never kept any of it longer than about two weeks if I even "finished" it. I'm really hoping I turn out to be like Bukowski, except, ya know, good.
Ryan Richardson
One word, friendo: speed. Vyvanse, Adderall, whatever you can get — that shit will change you.
Ian Harris
3 here, too, it's not comfortable for me, it's a bad compromise that leads to a shitty income and virtually no career options on one hand and low focus and too little time for my writing on the other.
How do you do it?
Jaxson Gomez
I'm wasting my life playing games, reading and sitting on the internet.
I have no interest in life and no desire for a career, and even if I do it's too late to change.
Brandon Collins
Anyone who isn't 1 won't make it. You may as well start writing a blog.
Oliver Garcia
Jeffrey Eugendies wrote most of Virgin Suicides while working full-time.
Kevin Flores
>Jeffrey Eugendies Your point stands that you can write a book working full time but Jeffrey Eugenides is a pretty bad writer. I actually had the misfortune of reading a few of his stories.
Christopher Edwards
4. except I really want an academic career and write philosophy, political stuff and fiction. I'm also painting, composing and doing theater in my free time. What does person who only writes write about? For me it's crucial to find inspiration from other aspects of life.
Gavin Anderson
Aim at mediocrity and it's much easier to succeed.
Gavin Davis
i'm 32 and i spent my 20s in college (undergrad and then PhD). i studied biochem though, not anything literature related. now i have a comfy lecturer position and read/write in my free time.
Benjamin Sanchez
This isn't /blog/ faggot, nobody gives a shit about your life.
Easton Green
I spent my 20s as a NEET who dropped out of college repeatedly, "working" as a 3d artist for games, beginning the journey of reading the Greeks, and serving in the military.
It's been about ten years and I can tell you I no longer aspire to write. I can and do write short fiction, sometimes, and I'm certain my background in myth, visual art, and film are honed enough to generate some good art. I just don't have the discipline to sit for a year and polish a jumble of ideas into a smooth running screenplay or novel.
Looking for work as a cop. Do your work before you think you're ready, anons, before the desire burns out.
John Nguyen
>23 recent MA grad >moved in with grandparents outside big city >"content writing" in my bedroom/cafes for part-time income while I write sporadically >launching a nonprofit with a friend, already gaining lots of traction >intend to spend 23-26 getting this nonprofit off the ground and living a comfy non-wageslave life >in my later 20s i'll probably take a more serious run at academia since I got very competitive grades during my Master's, a major academic publication, and great references >hopefully along the way publish a novel or two, or a collection of flash fiction
Anthony James
>got degree in accounting >terribad grades though, no possibility of grad school or cpa program acceptance >fucked around and put a 2 year gap in my resume >want to travel, but no money >working as a busboy >dad says he can get me a good job, but I can't sleep thinking about what accepting that will do to my character/self-reliance
I'm pretty demoralized lately. I've worked a lot on my self awareness and realized what a shitshow I am. Imagine a happy normie waking up in a body/life that was full /r9k/. All my friends/network are crummy people that are awful to others.
I'm glad that I treat people better now, but I feel like I have to climb a polished steel wall to live a better existence than I have been. Doesn't help that I have 100% unrealistic subconscious expectations from being spoiled/told I'm a genius my whole life. All outcomes, no matter how positive in light of choices I've made, feel like major disappointments.
>law degree >never use >teaching high-school english
Wtf are you doin' friendo? You could freelance writing briefs and make the same money in half the time without the headache. If you really love helping kids, then I guess.
Juan White
ive tried it before but adderall just makes me write a shitload, doesnt really make the writing itself better.
Tyler Cox
Pretending to be in Uni, working part-time while writing very little.
Chase Garcia
i hope you get killed on the job when you become a pig, good luck with your writing tbo
Parker Turner
Yeah really... I'd like to know what this dude's thinking
Juan Reed
Just take the job. Shitty work will demoralize you much quicker. What job is it anyways?
Elijah Howard
>a major academic publication This is bullshit and you know it. Either you’re AN author amongst others in a scientific article, or its the published proceedings of a conference.
A publication in itself is an accomplishment, but there’s no reason to self-aggrandize in order to impress a bunch of teenagers who fap to chinese cartoons.
Cooper Cruz
2
Ayden Anderson
Been 3 forever. Very lucky to be able to be 3. Most don't have the support network necessary to be 3. I was born on 1st base, which isn't so hot, but it's better than being born in the dugout, and I'm loads more self aware than the chumps born on third base who think they hit a triple.
Leo Howard
2. I put in two hours of writing everyday.
Alexander King
...
Ryder Martin
Business to business insurance sales.
Grayson Sanders
>t. dropout trying to justify his vidya addiction
Justin Murphy
Just finished up my undergrad 2 years late from a "prominent" uni in Canada, I moved back home around Christmas to help my parents move to a new home because they're too cheap for movers so at least I've gotten some good exercise as they have a ton of shit. Not worried about money because I saved up running my own weed delivery service last semester. Shit'll be done at the end of the month. Stuck in the suburbs without a car I can use regularly so I mostly just lift, attempt to read (I've read four books so far this year and started countless others) and alternate between wanting to kill myself and being somewhat hopeful about the future. I'll probably just kill myself when my parents pass, that's the only thing stopping me now.