<p>Do writers earn a good living? What would you need to study to be a newspaper writer?</p>
<p>Writers earn a good living?? Not most of them, although it is definitely possible. To be a newspaper writer, you would probably want to study English and journalism.</p>
<p>Writers DO NOT earn a good living, especially if they are freelance. That's what my father does and although his job has many perks he also never has any money. It is also pretty hard to get a regular full-time job at a newspaper, there's tons of competition, which is why lots of people are freelance. I know many people who write part-time and also have another job to pay the bills. But if writing is your dream, English and journalism are the way to go.</p>
<p>I write for fun, as does one of my best friends. Someday when we have full time jobs we're thinking of publishing our stuff, mainly for a little extra income but also because all our hard work, we think, should be read.</p>
<p>I've written a novel, several short stories, and one or two poems. He has written dozens of poems which are all excellent and numerous short stories (I'm not much of a poet, more of a book guy). I've got novel #2 in the works, he's got another anthology of poems coming. I also maintain a Pittsburgh Pirates blog.</p>
<p>We mostly use email to distribute our stuff. It's so much fun that we always seem to be writing at night when we aren't doing anything.</p>
<p>The reason we've kept it a hobby? Writing alone would make us both bums on the street. Also, I wouldn't want to major in literature because I hate literature based classes...life is no fun when you have to poke through nonsense when you'd much rather be taking your own thoughts and making them into a masterpiece. Or so I think, but being a writer I tend to think that way. My friend has a better attitude about it than I do.</p>
<p>I'm not sure about how a newspaper guy would get paid, but if you're a regular columnist I'd imagine it wouldn't be too shabby.</p>
<p>It depends. I know that for basically the only major paper in my city, they really don't make great money. I mean, it's not horrible, but it's simply respectable. But the competetion is pretty feirce. Sure, writing for the New York Times or National Geographic is a great dream, but very few people ever make it there.</p>