There is a growing concern across many industries to prepare for the future, to be ready for the onslaught of change. While this is by no means a new concern – look, for instance, at the Y2K scare, wherein people were afraid of technology not being ‘future ready’ – it is certainly prevalent in modern society and the contemporary workplace.
One surprising sector that is affected by the changing tides of the future, and one near to my heart, is that of the writer, the artist, the creator. How will we manage if all physical objects are torn from our grasp and we must exist in the Digital Space forever more? I don’t think writers and creators are going anywhere fast, but it is true that we should be adapting to the market and environment around us.
In the future, all writers will be made of circuitry
Here, then, are 10 tips on how to make it in the future as a writer.
Live performance will never die. We love to see something performed in front of us.
If people like you, they’ll probably support your work.
Poetry is timeless, and currently a growing market.
Print out drafts of your work and store them. It’ll be nice to look back on your time as a writer after the apocalypse.
Keep an eye on the bestseller list: it’s good to know what people are buying.
Learn from feedback. If people have comments, heed them.
Don’t heed all the comments you hear: some people are idiots.
There will always be jobs you can do alongside writing. Earning a living isn’t admitting defeat.
Be flexible, allowing yourself to move with the waves of time.
Don’t be too flexible. Know what you’re good at and find a market for it.
You may realise that some of these contradict one another, or don’t really make sense. That is because no one really knows what’s coming around the corner, so we do our best to hunker down and prepare, but we know that a surprise change blows that all to smoke. Even the experts are guessing. So maybe these tips will help you in the future, or perhaps they will become as obsolete as a VHS: only time will tell.