Thank you very much for your advice! You were very detailed in your response. I should point out, if I was making 1500 dollars a month for the rest of my life to be a writer, and I knew this in advance--I'd still do it. I'm not in it for the money. However, when I write, I will literally spend 8-12 hours a day in research, rewriting drafts, editing, so on so forth. I'm a perfectionist by nature, and so I take my time to get it right.
Niche writing seems to be what I would enjoy best. Of course, I'd love to do side-articles, and maybe even books on politics and history, and philosophy is always interesting. However, the driving force for my viewpoint is atheism. Reaching a target audience and getting involved in the debate on the highest possible level is what I am trying to do. (I already enjoy writing, and I love debating as well--I want to try and follow a path that will allow me to do both.)
