Andy Weir was a programmer when he wrote the martian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Weir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Chandler
There probably are more at https://bloom-site.com/about/ ”literary site devoted to highlighting, profiling, reviewing, and interviewing authors whose first major work was published when they were age 40 or older.”
Do you have to change your career to become a writer? I would focus on becoming a writer, and then if it works out change your career.
Also, it depends what kind of writer you want to become - some options are easier than others. For example, would you classify a journalist as a writer? Is technical writing "writing"?
Barry Eisler is a good example of a writer who broke into writing gradually. A former lawyer, it took him 7 years to get his first book published. He wrote in lunch breaks, on flights, after the kids went to bed. He had to re-write that first book at least twice based on feedback from agents/publishers.
Ted Chiang is an example of a technical writer who changed into science fiction writing.
I changed from teaching into technical writing.
How you will change into writing (which I assume is what you want) will depend on your starting point and how far down the road to becoming a writer you already are.
p.s. Have a read of "Big Magic" by Elizabeth Gilbert - I believe there's much of value in her suggested approach.
Successfully? Not me but I got the audio version of my book up as a podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/codecaine-scummy-tech-fo...
Fiction about 2 devs that sell coke to fund their redundant start up
I went the other way. I was a writer, and now I'm a developer because having a family is expensive.
Ha! Well I’ve thought about it ... but first I really need to work out a sound and complete story calculus to make sure his damned thing is self consistent ... then , well the story arc needs to balistically perfect for which I’ll really need differentiable characters ... wait maybe I’m thinking about this the wrong ? Hang on let me google to see if someone’s come up with a story writing language.
:)
I wouldn't say I've changed my career to become a writer. However, I've shifted directions and have began writing a ton more as part of my career.
I'm in marketing, and before was focused quite a bit on social media content which was just quick little snippets accompanied with a photo. Now I write mainly long form content for blogs.
I focus on digital privacy and security at: https://choosetoencrypt.com/
If you like writing, you can incorporate it into many careers, without having to quit your job and be a starving artist.
Charlie Stross did and is now a very successful science fiction author. He wrote about his career changes here: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/07/how-i-go...
I tried, but failed in the career shift. I found myself more draw to the tools than the writing. The problems of the extant tools were too distracting and I felt I was more drawn to solving those problems than the many my writing threw up. Once a code geek, always one, I guess. But, if you're keen give it a go, but it will be unlikely to support you unless you are exceptionally lucky.
The Nobel prize winning author J. M. Coetzee worked as a programmer when he was young - he describes it in his autobiographical novel, Youth. The promiment novelist Richard Powers worked as a programmer when he was young - that part of his life is described in the recent book, The Friendly Orange Glow.
Matt Gemmell was quite the prolific developer before he transitioned out of tech into writing: https://mattgemmell.com
Whether technical or creative writing, todays writing cannot be replaced with a full time job. Unless of course you are writing for a huge publication.
What kind of writing do you have in mind?
Charlie Stross was once a sysadmin/programmer.
Larry Correia was an accountant (and a gun store owner).
Keith Winstein was a journalist at WSJ for a short while, I think!
I've seen people move to technical writing.
Changed and changed back: I started as a programmer in Summer 1980; by 1994 I was tech writing, and then ghosting business books, and finally ghosting fiction. Seeing the low returns of even really good authors -- for one popular business book, I got $30K to ghost it, the author ended up making only $7K -- I decided to re-tool and learn Web languages. Now I'm a reasonably-well-paid Wiki administrator for a medium-size public medical software firm. I don't think it's one career, it's kinda surfing in place.