I desire to write Science Fiction

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How can I become a professional Science Fiction writer? I always wanted to do that, ever since I was very young. Do any of you have any ideas about how to go about that? Another possible career choice: an Historian.

Here is a course that is designed to help you learn many of the skills you need to write successful science fiction and fantasy stories.

http://www.writesf.com/

Thank you very much for the link!

First, it's not easy. Take Spider Robinson. He's been writing decent stuff for decades, so you'd think he'd be financially secure. Listen to some of his podcasts (http://www.spiderrobinson.com/podcast.html), and you find that's not so.

Mur Lafferty's "I should be writing" podcast (http://murverse.com/podcasts/) might help you. There are writing workshops. I heard more than once of the Clarion West workshop. If I look around, I maybe can find something else.


Academic, school teacher, writer?

Pursue that. You can write science fiction on the side and develop your writing abilities. I think knowledge you gain as an historian could be very beneficial to sci-fi writing as well.

It is 'easy', but it's very hard as well.

The quickest way to learn how to write, is simply to write.

They say it takes about ~7 years after you start writing to get published. Keep working at it and you'll be able to make a job out of it eventually.

Good luck~

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easy peasy - go check out my ebooks on Amazon Kindle to see what I managed to write and publish last year (details on my website dafyddtomoshyswain.co.uk - then contact my pal Aaron Rowles @ [email protected] for details of his kindle book Its Time To Write which is a plain English little book about how to get started writing - then go to the Amazon Create Space website for details of how to publish your work as a print on demand paperback book and a kindle ebook - simple - you wont believe how easy it all is - its only taking the first baby step into the unknown that's hard - and if you have any problems doing that, email me - and I'll walk you through it step by step - you'll find my email address on the copyright pages of all my books

This is coming from a published author - To build a career as a writer (fiction) Write... write, revise, polish... Then, when it is the best it can be, find an agent, submit to publishing houses... Talk to EVERYONE about your work... Someone may know someone... An idea won't cut it... ONLY a finished manuscript will/

BUT... be prepared for rejection... Rejection letters are the norm... it takes a LOT of them to get published. If you are lucky enough to get feedback from one of these people beyond "we don't think this is for us" - by all means TAKE IT...

RESEARCH your targeted submission vectors - make your queries personal, polished, perfect and dazzling.

stop desiring and start writing!

my favourite way of writing sci-fi is to start with a rough idea, write a quick and brutal first draft, then dive into the research to see if I can actually pull it off.

don't plan on making it your day job though, unless you're a trust-fund kid. sci-fi authors, even the very best, don't get paid that well.

I think you summed it up quite nicely. From my personal experience, writing is 'easier' for me than other things, but only because I've been practicing since 1st grade. Every time I come up with a new idea, I struggle to define it (genre, plot, fan fiction or original, series or stand-alone), then plan it (characters, setting, events), then write it (beginning, end, middle--because I always know how it'll start and end, but never what the hell happens in between DX).

But anyway...

For sci-fi, you'll need to do a lot of world building. I recommend the free e-book "Magical World Builder" by Stephanie Bryant, "World Building 101" by Julie Ann Dawson (a NOOK book from Barnes and Noble, if you have one), and "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" by Orson Scott Card.