Writing.

[asher553]

I've promised myself that Calendar Year 2024 is the year I'm going to get serious about writing, as in writing for publication. I still have only vague and half-formed ideas about what I want to write, and where and how I want to publish, but I'm working on getting clearer on these details and that's part of the process.

I want to produce both fiction and non-fiction. For the latter, I have some thoughts on moral and social matters that I want to flesh out and build on. Also, maybe some personal reflections, although I'm not keen on sharing a lot of intimate details of my personal history. I'm hoping to see at least a trickle of income from it, mostly for my own satisfaction.

Currently I have a Substack, although I've posted on it very sporadically, and I'm still trying to learn how to monetize it. I'm promising myself that I'm going to invest the time and effort to master the nuts-and-bolts details.

Technical writing is another avenue I'd like to explore; I think I could probably be effective because I enjoy explaining things clearly and concisely, and I know I have a good grasp of basic science, and of the mechanics of expository writing.

So, that's the plan. Friends with experience or knowledge of the field, any suggestions or ideas?

Comments

[cellio]

I was going to suggest Substack for the moral/social matters -- looks like you're ahead of me there. I don't have much experience with Substack (reader, not writer), but I follow a few people there and even pay for some of them, so that seems worth looking at. I don't know what kind of flexibility they offer in pricing.

For technical writing, you can of course write blog posts or the like on topics that interest you and seem useful to others, or you can look for where there are specific needs. If there are open-source projects that interest you, you might find some that need better (or any) documentation. Or you could look at Q&A sites (I have suggestions cough :-) ). There are also knowledge bases like Wikipedia, depending on whether attribution is important to you.

[asher553]

Thank you!

I confess I have been letting my Codidact account lie fallow, but I am going to remedy that. Most of the technical stuff is outside of my field of knowledge, but I could see myself getting involved in the Mathematics and Language areas.

[cellio]

And maybe the Judaism community?

I was not attempting to guilt you, to be clear; I couldn't remember if you had used Codidact at all, and if so when. Our communities are small but we're trying to grow. We know it's a challenge.

[asher553]

I actually found my way back to the Judaism community right after I posted my last comment!