by Lisa Hiton
So, you want to be a writer? You carry around little notebooks. Even when you’re caught without one, you’ve got a pen in your pocket, ready to jot down the opening line of your masterpiece on a napkin or receipt from your last coffee. You stare reality in the face, prepared to steal its best details and funniest moments for whatever character you may dream up in the future. When the lightning of the mind strikes, you’re prepared to be the rod that takes it all in and turns it into the next great novel.
While this is a tremendous vision, it is not the everyday life of most writers, believe it or not! Even your favorite YA novelists have had other kinds of jobs that keep them exercising their writing muscles. Most writers and artists you know and love have a myriad of jobs at once. Here are some other careers in writing that you may love just as much as the idea of being a “writer” itself.
Careers in Communications
The largest field employing writers today is communications. From mass media, to new media, this field hosts jobs in journalism, public relations, digital content, and the like. Did you recently visit a restaurant’s website to make a reservation? A copywriter wrote the content. Have you gone online to read up on the latest in world news? A journalist wrote the article. Has your favorite movie star recently started a foundation that you read about on social media? A media relations associate wrote the press release. We receive written material all the time throughout the day, especially as the digital world grants us access to all kinds of information. And so, if you want to be a writer, this is an exciting part of the world to consider joining. Here are some of the many jobs available to writers in the field of communications these days.
Journalism
Are you a writer who is obsessed with the truth? If you constantly find yourself reading and writing to get to the core of things, there may be no better space for you to seek the answers than in journalism. Journalists go into the trenches of various communities, meet with all kinds of personalities, and bring the facts to the public. The job is sometimes challenging, as not all corporations, governments, or people want the real story delivered to the public. Why not get the inside scoop on something going on in your town? Is there a local election you can cover? A new business opening? How are people impacted by these changes? Get out into a community and start asking people those tough questions!
Public Relations
Handling the media is an entire field unto itself. From celebrities, to government officials, to Olympic Games’ openings, companies and individuals who have a public presence need help maintaining their images and messages. Especially when things go wrong or when there are new projects that need to be presented to the public with a splash. Public relations is all about interacting with the press. Writing press releases and press packets are part of everyday life for media relations experts. You have to think on your feet and be ready to write convincing, concise, and precise pieces at all times.
One facet of public relations is related to corporate social responsibility. These days, gigantic companies are beginning to learn how to use their wealth for good. Take, for example, Google’s work in fighting ebola. Because of their excellent PR team, they were able to raise $7.5 million to fight ebola. Or take Burger King’s “Proud Whopper” campaign in service of supporting PRIDE efforts in the face of inequality against the LGBTQ community. There are all kinds of ways that PR experts work with advertisers and the press to bring about messages, products, and the inside scoop on what their clients are really thinking and working on.
Social Media Coordinator
Young people are paving the way in cyber-communications through social media. As digital natives, the worlds of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and the like are as usual to you as cursive and checkbooks are to your parents and grandparents. Many companies are hiring digital natives to manage their social media presence. Whether you’re a master at tweeting or hashtagging your IG pics, you can find yourself writing in different venues all day, every day, as a social media mogul in the digital universe.
While social media is often misperceived by adults as a vanity of millennial culture, our generation and the generations to follow use social media in so many innovative ways, especially as it relates to activism and awareness around different cultural and world issues. Many citizens in Sydney, Australia participated in an #IllRideWithYou campaign in support of fellow Muslim citizens who face the realities of racism and Islamophobia in many public settings, especially on public transit. Another recent social media campaign was the #IceBucketChallenge, which raised awareness and over $100 million dollars for ALS. From celebrities, to family reunions, no Facebook page was free of this campaign for an entire summer. Is there a cause that’s important to you and your local community? Why not develop a hashtag or larger social media campaign to raise support and awareness?
Speech Writing
“Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it, and the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time.” Hillary Rodham Clinton
“When they go low, we go high.” Michelle Obama
These phrases and moments of great public speaking are crucial to uniting communities. Some of these famous moments of public speaking were written by those who spoke them, others were written in collaboration with speech writers. Some of the most famous speeches of recent American politics have been from Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. After Clinton’s concession speech in losing the primary to Barack Obama in 2008, Michelle Obama reached out to Sarah Hurwitz, HRC’s speech writer. Hurwitz worked with the first lady all the way through eight years of the White House and even Michelle Obama’s famous DNC speech in which HRC accepted the nomination to be the democratic candidate for this past election.
Careers in Marketing
Advertising
Is a sense of humor important to you? Are you quick with a quip for every occasion? Do you relish a witty tweet? Then advertising may be a great place for you to hone your writing skills. From masterful turns of phrase, to taglines, to copywriting, the world of advertising is all about creativity and precision in bringing products to the public.
“Have you had your break today?” Do you believe that “diamonds are forever”? Do you feel you’re “in good hands”? The slogans penned by advertisers are some of the most known pieces of writing we live with everyday. Plus, copywriters and art directors in advertising have the joy of collaborating with graphic designers and other visual artists to bring their words and ideas to life. Take graphic designer, Milton Glaser, for example, who designed the I <3 NY logo as part of an ad campaign meant to promote tourism for New York City and New York State. When Glaser was asked to work on the ad campaign by Wells Rich Greene, he hoped the logo and saying would appear around the city for a few months. From 1977 the I <3 NY logo has become a recognizable part of the city itself. Advertising slogans and ideas permeate throughout public life in a constant stream of glowing lights and jingles. They could be penned by you.
Product or Technical Writing
Knowing the ins and outs of a new technology, product or service is one thing, but being able to explain it to the core audience of everyday people is a writing skill highly valued in the product marketing field. From website copy, collateral, how-to videos, product manuals and other content, technical and product writers explain everything someone needs to know about a particular new innovation! This role usually works closely with the technology or product team to understand and translate their work so more people (internally in the company or externally) understand it.
Careers in Storytelling Across Industries
Screenwriting
From newsrooms to sitcoms, all of television is run by writers rooms. Unlike a novel, scripts are collaborative efforts involving writers, producers, and on-screen talent to deliver the news and stories of our time to the public. If dialogue is your bread and butter, then a writers room may just be the place for you. Even reality shows and award shows employ many writers to get the overarching story and the punchy lines of humor just right. Not to mention, the rise in popularity of podcasts—that has given the script for radio a whole new revival. Why not challenge yourself to script out a great podcast, jokes for an award show, or even the plot to your favorite reality TV series.
Food Writing
Smell and taste are perhaps the hardest senses to translate to the page. But if you’re a lover of restaurants, cooking, eating, and the like, then food writing might just whet your appetite. Especially as the internet has become host to the likes of Eater, Thrillist, Yelp, likealocal, and so many other food-specific sites, there are all kinds of ways to dedicate your life to writing about the worlds of food and food culture. So find a food festival, farmer’s market, or new restaurant in your town. Challenge yourself to describe the experience of food and see if this kind of writing suits you. You can even start by writing short reviews of your favorite local spots on Yelp or OpenTable!
Travel Writing
The life of a travel writer can be pretty glamorous: getting sent to new hotels, far off cities, and museum openings to report back on what is out there in the world. To be sure, travel writing can also take place right where you are! Do you have a favorite park in your hometown? A beach that defines your childhood? While these spots may seem mundane to you, to travelers, it may be just the authentic take on your town that the world is looking for. Practice writing about the most intimate places you know around you. Your writing may help newcomers see your town in more vivid ways!
There are all kinds of magazines and online sites dedicated to travel writing. AndNorth for example is a design site dedicated entirely to writing about places in New York State outside of NYC. From artisan’s stores, to bed and breakfasts, the locals who make upstate New York idyllic are represented through gorgeous images, insightful interviews, and feature pieces. For New Yorkers looking to get a weekend away from the big city or out of towners, the site helps travelers build their ideal trip into upstate NY.
Video Game Copywriter
Gaming is a world unto itself. Whether you love Candy Crush, Minecraft, PacMan, Zelda, Halo, or Mario, the world of the game is entirely invented by writers. Like any good story, the characters of the game need a mission, a plotline, a backstory, and a landscape in which their stories are believable. While the script isn’t as set as a screenplay, the broad arc of the characters and the possibilities within each world or level need to be dreamt up by a writer like you!
Grant Writing
Are you interested in activism or advocacy? Do you want to know just how much your words are worth? Then grant writing could just be the writing career for you. Grant writers have the complex task of writing proposals in the hopes of earning large sums of money for various institutions in the non-profit sector. Whether you work for a museum, a non-profit media company, or a not-for-profit medical foundation, funds are always a high need to do the hard work of public service.
Blogging
Another way of bringing your voice into the world is through blogging—which is what I’m doing to communicate with you right now! Blogging can cover a range of topics, both personal and professional. Maybe you and your friends have a summer book club going and after each meeting, you post reflections on the book you’ve written. Or perhaps you’ve challenged yourself to write every day this summer—you can start a Tumblr to keep track of and present your progress. If the internet had been around when I was young, I would have blogged about the treasures I found at garage sales each week. Here are two recent blogs that have inspired me in my own efforts as a writer, artist and educator:
- Ten Thousand Haiku: 27 Years of 17-Syllable Days: A blog in which the poet, Calvin Olsen, writes one haiku per day for 27 years!
- Brain Pickings: Maria Popova began this blog as a personal inventory of texts that mattered to her intellectual and spiritual growth. It began as a newsletter she shared with a few of her friends and has turned into a phenomenon for book lovers. She presents important texts from all fields and genres and gets readers inspired to keep their own logs of important texts and how they shape our minds and cultures.
So dear writers, as you continue to write and dream of the writer’s life, keep your mind open to the variety of opportunities available to you. The world needs voices in every corner to shape the society we live in—the products we buy, the recipes we cook, the games we play—they all need your creativity to come to life!
About Lisa
Lisa Hiton is an editorial associate at Write the World. She writes two series on our blog: The Write Place where she comments on life as a writer, and Reading like a Writer where she recommends books about writing in different genres. She’s also the interviews editor of Cosmonauts Avenue and the poetry editor of the Adroit Journal.
This blog was updated on 6/26/2023 with additional information.