About Being a Non-One-Niche Writer

Is going broader wrong?

Ok, this is another post about my peculiarities as a writer, but why can’t I introduce them to you, maybe to encourage a little discussion? 😉

A widespread view in the writer community is that if you really want to make a difference as a writer, you have to focus on a specific niche. That you always have to write about the same topics. Best always in the same style. Preferably regularly.

I’m not saying that may not be true. I am not saying that this is the wrong strategy to become known and recognized as quickly as possible in a certain area (the niche). I am not saying that this strategy is unsuccessful.

But I’m not a friend of monotony. I like having variety. Going broad at times. Doing different things.

And I want to spread this spirit, because I ask myself the question, how should someone find his passion, what drives him, what interests him burningly, if he is only focused on the same thing, if he doesn’t look to the left and right, what possibilities there are?

Perhaps it is also a good idea to present my own career as a writer:

First of all, writing is just a hobby for me. Writing is a passion, but not something I want to make my profession.

I came to writing a few years ago by chance. In my teenage years (ok, they’re not quite over yet, but I mean, when I was about 14 or 15) I had an app that I used to announce updates on a simple Blogger page. I have told you what’s new and why it’s worth downloading this app.

As far as I can remember, my next step was that at some point I came across Medium, yes Medium, the page on which I am writing this post. I had heard that it was in beta and only selected people were allowed to use it, but now it was open for everyone. That must have been 2014 or 2015.

I was so taken with the site that I just-for-fun wrote an article about the latest WhatsApp update. I was very interested in apps back then.

And so it went on, I just reported about some apps, added my opinion and published it all in a publication called AndroidPub.

And since I had fun and apparently some people were reading my stuff, I went on …

… and on …

… and at some point someone came up to me on the internet and asked me if we didn’t want to start a WordPress blog. Sure, why not. I wrote some articles, he took care of design and everything, but eventually the site fell asleep.

That’s why I started my own blog outside of Medium, which focused entirely on apps and news for Android. I’ve published countless apps reviewed and Android news like an addict.

This also gave me the opportunity to write German articles (German is my mother tongue, but somehow I had always only written English articles). I “applied” to a German blog to see if I could help with the creation of app reviews and even went to the IFA in Berlin once with the entire team. An indescribable experience as a technology-interested person.

But then fate had its hands in the game and messed up my whole life and made me take a break from writing app reviews.

When I started writing again, I wrote German articles, but not about apps, but all sorts of things about the life and views of a geek. Just anything and it gave me the opportunity to let some air out in one or the other rant. By the way, I’m still writing on the blog.

After more than 200 articles, I moved this blog from WordPress to Medium and somehow got the idea to write articles in English again. Partly similar to what I did in German, but also about many different topics. Medium offers the best opportunity by participating in various publications.

And that’s where I am today. I always write what I feel like doing, because I simply have the opportunity to do so. And when I find one topic more exciting than the other, I simply dedicate myself to it more intensively. And when my interests shift slightly, that’s no problem at all.

My topics range from programming to Android, traveling, writing and getting up early to go running.

And it’s just fun, which I think is reason enough to keep going on!

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