<p>I am currently a high school junior. I have always loved writing, and I just recently decided to start writing stories to enter writing contests and to try to get published. I plan to major in engineering in college and work as an engineer afterward. My questions:
Does it matter to colleges or future employers that I write fiction on the side? The only writing they should be able to see online would be stories that I was lucky enough to get published in an online magazine or something. Nothing I write is explicit or in appropriate, only containing moderate violence. Should I just write under a pen name, so that I can keep my writing separate from my work-life or does it not really matter? For what it is worth, I write mainly sci fi and fantasy.</p>
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Why not have a personal blog and post stories there? Then anyone can see them.</p>
<p>I’m confused, why would this be a negative? Do you think because you want to major in Engineering that colleges won’t like seeing you have a humanities related hobby? Cause I don’t think that’s true at all. Sorry if I completely misread your question, but that’s how it read to me.</p>
<p>I guess my main question is: Will future employers care if I am publishing fiction on the side? If my name is searched online and all that comes up are my stories, will employers care about them? I read a few months back about a woman who was fired from her job because her employer (with help from an employee) found this woman’s old modeling website with pictures of her that were supposedly not even sexual or inappropriate- just normal modeling. I know writing and modeling are a bit different, but I was worried there could be something employers would not like about having an employee trying to work as an author on the side. Maybe I’m just being stupid.</p>
<p>Modeling carries entirely different connotations with it than writing. Not that those connotations or prejudices are justified, but they are there.</p>
<p>No, writing will not a be a detriment to your future in any way at all unless you’re writing something ludicrously inappropriate (i.e. being racist/sexist/atrocious)</p>
<p>Okay, thanks for replying. That is definitely good news to hear. Thanks for taking the time to respond to my posts everyone; I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>I would think it’d be quite the opposite of detrimental - if I really enjoyed writing fiction, I would definitely mention that as an extracurricular and probably even link to my blog or however I posted the stories. If you enjoy doing something, do it. Even as a STEM student (as I am), writing is useful and publishing (or getting published) is especially cool. I think colleges/employers/whatever would appreciate it rather than dislike it.</p>
<p>Wow, I completely misunderstood the OP. That explains why you were asking about using a pen name. I thought you wanted to list writing as an extracurricular activity and to have some way of substantiating it.</p>
<p>I do know of someone who was denied a job because her recruiter read her My Little Pony erotica. Believe it or not, this person is quite talented, but she chose to use her talent in a rather… umm… off-putting way.</p>
<p>But you sound fine. Believe me, you will not become an engineer without meeting (more than) a few sci-fi and fantasy nerds. If anything, you will have an opportunity to build rapport with said nerds.</p>
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<p>Um…</p>
<p>I guess if there’s something you should definitely post under a pen name (or no name at all), that’s it right there.</p>