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I like to read and watch videos, documentaries and movies about topics covering a wide variety like history, ancient architecture, science fiction, fantasy, astronomy etc. These things take up most of my time.

I started to read and watch about these topics just for fun but slowly and gradually this activity has now become an integral and indispensable part of my day.

The problem is, neither do I possess good writing skills nor am I an expert in any of these topics but since it's taking up maximum portion of my day, I am wondering if there is a career where I can utilise this hobby of mine.

Also, if this is not the right place for this question, I'd highly appreciate if someone guides me to a more appropriate forum.

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    I’m voting to close this question because it's off-topic since it's not about writing. You could try the Workplace SE site or something, but they might close it as off-topic there as well.
    – nick012000
    Jul 4, 2021 at 6:54
  • I suggest editing the question to ask if the activities you describe can be useful to an author and/or would be a possible first step in becoming one. (And I'd answer, yes, at least watching fictional movies and TV shows gave me a good sense of characterization and plot. Documentaries can always be used as research. I guess watching documentaries would give good input on how to write non-fiction as well.)
    – Erk
    Jul 5, 2021 at 1:31

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Self Development:

I was reasonably sure I could never write, because I wrote some truly awful short stories in high school and college. As excited as I was by them, they sucked. Yet I still wanted to write a novel as a life goal.

I also research and learn for fun, and put together very different elements of stories until I said, "That's crazy! It's a fusion scifi Nazi ancient Greek Hindu culture with friendly cannibals!" and it was so weird, I had to write it. Highly diverse backgrounds and knowledge gives you access to the fun little snippets of information that make stories feel more real. You begin to see the common elements in very different things, and can tie them together.

As I mentioned in this question, your first novel will suck. It takes a lot of reading (which sound like it shouldn't be a problem for you) and practice to be a good writer. But write short stories to practice, and see HOW and WHY they suck. If you have people both patient enough with you to read your stuff and brutal enough to be honest about it (no moms), you will see patterns of what you're doing and fix them. You'll read with a different eye, and see that even 'good' novels have glaring deficiencies that don't stop them from being fun or getting published.

Now, that's no promise of success. You may NOT have a talent for writing, but I didn't think I did either - until I did a lot more of it. Do you LIKE writing? Is it fun and rewarding? If it is, you can do it as a 'hobby' while trying to get things published. If you DON'T like writing, it's not a stable career, and I'd avoid it.

I would suggest getting on Worldbuilding SE. A diverse set of knowledge will serve you well there. You'll get to think about weird questions in stories, and come up with fun answers. You establish a sort of online presence, and if you have great answers, you can ask questions and build up some fun worlds to write in. Publish a few short stories, write the crappy novel (for fun), then write the one you're really passionate about (when you know what you're doing).

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  • Thanks a lot! Your mention of - "You begin to see the common elements in very different things, and can tie them together."- That's so true! And it is one of the true pleasures of reading different genres from different eras. The similarities one starts to notice in the themes of various works is an awesome feeling personally. To tell you the truth, writing a novel sounds really tough and I never really thought that I'd ever even think of even starting to write one. (1/2)
    – CCCC
    Jul 3, 2021 at 15:22
  • A blurry picture of a work that I visualise, is to be part of a team where different minds come together and create a writing piece that has elements from different topics making it interesting and appealing to a wider audience. I know this sounds really vague. That's why I posted my dilemma as a question here hoping that probably I could find some hint if such (or related) career exists. But thanks again for answering! (2/2)
    – CCCC
    Jul 3, 2021 at 15:26
  • @CCCC If you have a vision for a story, writing a novel is an inspirational task (but can be challenging, too, if you don't have inspiration for the next part). It is, unfortunately a fairly solitary task, although if you like the collaboration angle, I'd suggest doing some submission on worldbuilding and see how that goes.
    – DWKraus
    Jul 3, 2021 at 16:04
  • Thanks.. I'll surely check out Worldbuilding
    – CCCC
    Jul 3, 2021 at 16:57
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Youtuber.

There's a wide variety of Youtube video genres out there, and it's possible that you might be able to leverage your hobby to fit into one of them. There's science Youtubers that make videos to discuss interesting factoids, there's reaction Youtubers that make videos of themselves watching and reacting to other videos, et cetera.

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Is there a career for a person in writing who likes to gather knowledge in multiple fields?

Perhaps not, let's find out.

Check first to see if you are watching to escape from working. If you are not able to put aside watching anything for at least several hours each day and focus on working then there may be no connection with liking to "gather knowledge" = watching stuff, and a career generating new content.

Try some quick tests. Choose a time period of say one or two hours. Do not watch anything but instead try to organize some bit of what you have alreaduy "gathered" so far.

Was it endurable? Can you do it tomorrow, and the next day...

If it seems difficult or challenging to do this, then it may not be a natural career path for you. It still might be, but then the next step is to identify what is making it difficult. That might be the topic of an excellent new question here!

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I know this probably won't answer your question if the end goal of it being a career is only what you're after.

But offhand chance you share the feeling of 'upgrading' your hobby into something which "gives back to society", while choosing something else as your main career, hear me out: I recommend considering editing Wikipedia.

I can personally say I related so much to your situation (feeling we do not possess skills as a writer or communicator or being an expert, us types fit perfectly here). Though I'm a software developer by profession now (and love my job), I edited Wikipedia a lot as a hobby. Editing there scratched every itch and it was tailor-made for people like this, at least, I can speak for myself. I loved the feeling of "giving back while I gained knowledge" without any limits. The joy of maintaining an encyclopaedia, a sum of all human knowledge. It polished my writing skills as a good side-effect too, particularly on proof-reading and communicating complex topics to the layperson via writing.

I felt a bit lost just consuming knowledge without sharing it like how I used to do before. What a noble cause I felt I was part of, among (just a few) thousands of others who did it, even if my contributions were less compared to the other dedicated editors. I only mildly lamented that it has no scope (and it's good that way) of being made into a career. Else I would spend my entire day doing that.

That's enough of me tooting my own horn now. :) Good luck with whatever you find yourself doing and I hope you end up liking it.

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