Professional Writer

Where Do I Even Start?

     When most people think of how a writer creates their content, they think that the person simply sits at a table with a laptop and an idea and begins rapidly typing away until a novel materializes before them.

Education

     According to educhoices "In general, a college degree is required to be professional Writer, according to the BLS. Some employers prefer those with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Journalism or Communications, while other employers look for a broad background in the liberal arts. For Writers who wish to specialize in an area, such as healthcare or business, a degree or coursework in that field is helpful. Those who wish to become technical writers can obtain a Bachelor of Science in Technical Writing, although many technical writers have undergraduate degrees in the liberal arts. All professional Writers need to have strong computer skills; many writers do research on the Internet as part of their work and transmit their work via email."

Initial Experience
     Before a professional education from college, you can gain experience in writing from journalism in college as well as internships at publishing companies and magazines. At home practice is something that can be utilized as well.

School Options

When studying Creative Writing, there are a number of options available for you for schooling. Some notable options are New York University, University of Virginia, and the University of Iowa.

New York University
     New York University's Creative Writing Program is located in the heart of Greenwich Village, a formative terrain in the development of American literature. The faculty is of truly stellar quality, including the world-famous novelists E.L. Doctorow, Breyten Breytenbach, Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz, Mary Gaitskill, and Jonathan Safran Foer, as well as the equally distinguished poets Sharon Olds, Anne Carson, Charles Simic, and John Ashberry. The literary journal Washington Square calls NYU home.

University of Virginia
     The Creative Writing Program at the University of Virginia is a two-year, residency MFA program. It is only one aspect of a very distinguished English department that is home to a number of literary journals, notably Meridian and Virginia Literary Review, often considered to be one of the best literary magazines in the country. The best-known names currently associated with the Program are Ann Beattie, author of the novel Chilly Scenes of Winter (Doubleday, 1976) and a frequent contributor of short stories to New Yorker magazine, and Rita Dove, a former U.S. Poet Laureate.

University of Iowa
     There is little doubt that the University of Iowa's Program in Creative Writing (more commonly known as the Iowa Writers' Workshop), which is a two-year residency program, is the premier graduate creative writing program in the country. This can be seen by virtue of its illustrious list of past and present students and faculty (Robert Penn Warren, Robert Lowell, John Cheever, John Berryman, Philip Roth, Kurt Vonnegut, Jane Smiley, Marilynne Robinson,  Michael Cunningham, Jorie Graham---the list goes on and on). It can also be seen by virtue of the simple fact that if you asked someone in the street to name a creative writing program, this is undoubtedly the one they would mention first (and probably last). The program is also home to The Iowa Review.

Looking for employment


Average Salary
     "According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2010 writers and authors earned a median salary of $55,420 per year, or $26.64 per hour. These numbers are for freelance writers and authors of books, though, and novelist income is harder to pin down because usually, income depends on book sales and contracts. A working novelist could be compared to a small business owner, because the amount of product sold will determine the novelist's salary, or income, for a particular year." (Chron)