If you treat writing like a craft, if you like to use words to sharpen sentences and sculpt paragraphs, there is nothing quite like a career that lets you practice those passions. If you are a student who loves writing and wants to build a career around it, here are five fields to explore that can turn the love of words into a paying gig.
1. Content Marketing Specialist
Content marketing specialists write the blogs, articles, and social media content we read and share daily. This job melds writing with marketing strategy, requiring people to create content that draws and holds customers. It might be the perfect job for writers who need to stay up-to-date on a wide range of subjects and who love to write in different voices for different audiences. As businesses move online, demand for good content marketers grows, and opportunities to grow and experiment abound.
2. Technical Writer
Do you have the knack for breaking down complex information into simple and easy-to-grasp content? Then, technical writing might be the right profession for you. Technical writers prepare instruction manuals, journal articles, and other technical supporting documents to make the complex and technical information easier to understand. It is a professional career that could be rewarding for someone who enjoys making technical topics easy to grasp by the people who need to know more about them. Often, technical writers collaborate with the subject matter experts to validate the technicality of the information to be published.
3. Essay Writer
An essay writer is a professional writer who composes clear, engaging essays on a wide range of topics, subject to a client’s requirements or academic parameters. You could be helping a student with a challenging piece of coursework or working for an educational publication. Either way, your most trusted allies will be your ability to be thorough and your capacity for the research needed. A good essay writer must be flexible, able to master an assortment of subjects – whether it’s environmental science, travel writing, or Renaissance literature – and able to articulate complex ideas in a simple, elegant way. If you don’t mind weaving threads of knowledge into tapestries that inform and persuade, this is the job for you.
4. Screenwriter
If your idea of nirvana is seeing your words flash across the big screen, becoming a screenwriter may be your dream job.
As a screenwriter, you will:
- Develop Concepts: Generate ideas for stories and plots that can be turned into screenplays for movies, TV shows, or web series.
- Write Scripts: Create detailed scripts, including dialogue, character development, and stage directions.
- Edit and Revise: Continuously refine their scripts based on feedback from directors, producers, or other collaborators.
- Research: Conduct thorough research to ensure the accuracy of the script, whether it involves historical events, scientific information, or cultural details.
- Pitch Ideas: Present story ideas and scripts to potential producers, directors, and other stakeholders in hopes of selling their screenplay.
The role requires mastery of narrative, characterization, and dialogue but also a thick skin for dealing with fierce competition and the industry’s ever-shifting landscape. It’s an ideal fit for writers who love to tell stories and who are intrigued by how a text can be made to look.
5. Editor
Editors are responsible for making sure a piece of writing is complete, accurate, and ready for publication. Editors correct grammatical and spelling errors in the author’s work and help shape the piece into its final form. The job can include rearranging the structure of a story or offering feedback to the writer to help her improve. Editors are often former writers who have mastered the field, so you can even write a blog or an essay about writing experience, teaching novice writers how to master their craft. Consider this job if this is something that sounds good to you.
Writing Your Own Success Story
To see your love of writing turn into something a little more structured, like a career, can lead to a deeply satisfying life. Maybe you want to explain the latest tech gadget to the world as a technical writer, or perhaps you will craft a company’s narrative as a PR specialist. This is just a taste of the many ways your writing skills can be put to use. Keep your hunger for good writing alive, and keep learning and adapting along the way, and eventually, you will successfully transform your love of writing into a fulfilling, fruitful career.
