OUAN602 - Writing Opportunities

I've spoken briefly about writing competition and the writer's groups and guilds that are accessible to someone who wants to improve their writing and become involved in this aspect of the industry. Along side these however, there are some other opportunities I have been looking into and discovering that may also lead to reaching my goals in this area.

After I decided to pursue this more seriously and attempt to work on this practice in order to inform and produce better work, I began looking for resources to encourage and learn more about it. These include, writing subreddits which include the critique of various manuscripts, writing tips and are useful resource to follow in terms of the information available. Aside from this, I've been trying to discover podcasts where writers discuss and talk about their personal experience with writing which provides a lot of insight into the way the industry works but also the way different writers go about their work. This can be reassuring and in particular I remember listening to screenwriter Aaron Sorkin when he said [and I'm paraphrasing, 'people expect to sit down at their keyboard and the words will flow out of them, but what is being described here, is finger painting.'During the process of writing part I of my Extended Practice writing work I came across this problem, in the sense that sometimes I would be able to write several thousand words in a single sitting, whereas other days I could sit for hours and perhaps write a few sentences because the ideas and concepts I wanted to write were difficult to convey, for whatever reason.

A lot of various magazines, blogs, and other online publications have a model in which contributors send them work for them to publish online. This for the most part [from what I've seen] is paid work, and can be quite a sustainable form of income if you enjoy the work and are talented in this field.

Another entry point into writing and a benefit is simply the enjoyment from writing and this in combination with the way this can inform my other work based around stories. This can include stand alone art work, animation, film, or graphic novels.

Job roles as a story writer have also appeared in several places I've been looking, and I think once I have more experience, become a better writer and perhaps form a portfolio of appropriate work this is something that I could apply for in terms of a regular job opportunity.