‘Writing Career’ Progression

Somebody asked me recently about my "writing career". I don’t think I ever summarised it -- until now. This is seen apart from writing (an estimated 10 million words) which I did for Church and seminary:

• As a student, I edited four student magazines.
• After this, I was “free range”: I wrote various articles, pastoral and technical.
• I became a columnist for a South African magazine.
• I had a small booklet published, endorsed by a (future) Nobel prizewinner.
• I started to write short technical articles, now becoming a paid writer.
• I hit the "big time" with features in big name magazines. I won several prizes.
• I was appointed Consulting Editor of a major magazine in the USA.
• There were about 4 million print copies of my articles. I expanded to the Internet.
• I became journal published in three fields: theology, electronics, and gnomonics.
• I started what became Southern Africa's most authoritative Religion weblog.
• I changed course. I followed a call that I felt (almost) from the beginning ...
• I became journal published in philosophy, and began to write popular philosophy.
• I had a short metaphysic published in the UK.
• I was appointed co-editor and deputy editor of philosophy publications in the UK.
• I embarked on a full metaphysic (which is now under development).
• I have continued to experiment with the occasional "free range" writing.

OBSERVATION: It seems to have been a slow business, learning to write. Some people are faster learners. My big turn for the better came when a deputy editor started publishing short articles of mine. I called it entering through the "back door". Another observation: the technical writing was not wasted when I changed course. I learnt a lot which could be transferred.