A brief introduction, and call for advice

[Chris.Roth]

Hello community!

My name is Chris, and I am a fairly new activist within atheism, although I have struggled with faith for about a decade. I'm a 24 year old writer from the west coast of the U.S. I was raised in the Catholic Church, but when I turned 14 began to have issues with my faith. It took me 5 years to stop trying to convince myself to continue believing, and my family has not stopped trying to convince me yet. (I don't think they will, but I accept that part of them, as they have been good, loving parents, despite their flaws.)

I've been a writer since I was 14 as well. I never wrote a book, but wrote many persuasive essays and articles, naturally had an inclination to perform above average in debates, and love the shit out of a good argument. I've finally come to the point in my life when I realize that I would like to pursue a similar path to such greats as Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennett, as well as numerous other outstanding contributing atheists to the community, fighting for the regulation of what religious organizations have the right to get away with.

I have no doubt I could type out a book that provided an outstanding argument, (or at least a fairly decent one) within a year or so, and alas--the problem arrives:

Absolutely no one would know who I am, nor care. (Why should they, I understand--I've contributed nothing to the writing community on more than a local level, and never in full length novel form.)

I study Biology, Philosophy, and English in college, and most of my studies are focused on understanding religion, human culture, and morality. (As well as the scientific perspective of how we got here.) I also read plenty, so getting informed on the subject of atheism has never been my problem. I just have no clue where to start. Who do you look for to submit articles to in order to get a name out? How do you hone in on a specific argument? Is focusing on only atheism and anti-theism in my writing unbalanced in any way, and would it provide a bad/biased career?

In general, any advice would be great. This is my first post in any atheist community forum--it's about time.

[FallentoReason]

Hey Chris. Welcome to the forum.

anti-theism

I've never liked this way of saying what your cause is. If you sincerely want to essentially share the truth about our universe, then you should have recognised that the truth has no higher purpose or motive. It just is.

I guess my advice for your career would be to humbly share the truth because the truth isn't aware, nor does it depend on, your motives.

[Shell B]

First off, welcome. You have a lot of questions there. I will try to answer them.

Firstly, don't bother to write to be recognized. People didn't recognize the name Richard Bachman and that didn't hurt Stephen King's career in the slightest. Write because you want to write. If you're any good, people will start to recognize you.

Who do you look for to submit articles in order to get a name out? Well that depends on many things. Are you looking to make money? Are you looking to reach an audience? Do you want to hone your skills? Are you only willing to write within your niche? These are important things. Figure out what you want. If you are just looking to write and get your shit out there, start a blog.

Honing in on a specific argument is simple. Start with a broad one and narrow it down. In terms of writing, it is taking a big idea and making it smaller. Say "refrigerators" is a hot search topic at the moment. An experienced writer wouldn't write an article entitled "refrigerators." They would seek a more specific topic. They would write, say, best refrigerator designs for a home with toddlers. Take a broad topic and narrow that shit down to a point. Thinking about your ideal audience helps here. The above example targets young homeowners with children -- a huge internet user base. Now, if you're targeting atheists, spend some time here and you will learn a bit about your target audience, which is key to choosing the best, narrowest topics.

Focusing on only atheism and anti-theism is not unbalanced. It is called niche writing. Almost all writers have a niche. Mine is history. I happen to also whore myself out for money and write filler and promo stuff a lot, but it keeps me writing what I like to write. Will it provide a bad career? You're already choosing to be a writer. It doesn't get much worse than that. If you don't love it, run now while you still can.

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If you sincerely want to essentially share the truth about our universe, then you should have recognised that the truth has no higher purpose or motive. It just is.

I'm pretty sure he didn't say he wanted to do any of that. From what I saw, he said he wants to write. Even in your post, you have a motive. Everyone does. He can't write without motive. Try riding a bike without moving your legs.

[Chris.Roth]

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.)

[Shell B]

Haha, you can expect to spend 8-12 hours a day at it. I don't know why, but it's like being one of the seven dwarves.

Niche writing is the way to making a name for yourself. Don't stray from your niche until you have something of a name for yourself among your peers and audience in that niche. As for atheism, that is going to be a tough nut to crack in this medium. Atheists gravitate toward podcasts and popular blogs. You are very unlikely to find publications that want a columnist in the atheism niche. Your best bet is likely to build up your own stuff and get people to advertise on it to make money. Then, write books that go with your (hopefully popular) site.

[Chris.Roth]

Starting a blog is incredibly easy, and I could definitely use that. My mother, (ironically) is a soon-to-be-published author in the Christian Fiction community. (-.-) From what her agents have mentioned, they'd want 10,000 monthly viewers on her blog to give her the chance to have a book published. (if, of course, the book is any good.) This means to me that attempting to put a book out first is almost stupid, so I've pretty much backed down from that idea. I just want to confirm that this is an accurate depiction of such a situation? As for Atheism being tough to crack on this medium---bring it.

[Shell B]

Well . . . putting out a book may not be a terrible idea, but in this publishing climate, be prepared to self-publish, whether you are in print or online. E-books are astonishingly simple to get out there, so if your heart is set on a book, do it. Don't let chances of success dictate whether you do it or not. Shit, I have a book just sitting on my laptop. I still think it is a good idea to go blog or website before doing anything else. It is realistic for publishers to want reassurance. Getting that many visitors takes time, though. You are definitely not going to break into the market like a bat out of hell, so don't anticipate that. Writing online takes patience . . .

. . . unless you're Adrian and you have a tech niche. Bastard. <3