Writing Careers: What is Your Path?

Writing is such a great career.  It is very easy to say “I want to be a writer” and imagine writing the next great novel of the century.  So many times though, we let other writing-related careers escape while we never actually write the next great novel.  At one time, I was considering combining computer programming with writing.  Some people refer to this as storyboarding and I thought it would be a great career.  After some more thinking, I realized it was not what I really really wanted to do.  Is it something I could do and enjoy?  Probably, but it just was not my true dream.  I love the plots behind some video games such as some of the Final Fantasy games as well as the Kingdom Hearts games.  The story (for me) is a very large part of what makes a game average or great.

There were other careers within the field of writing that I realized I would enjoy possibly just as much as writing.  Being a publisher, agent, proofreader, editor or copywriter are all viable careers in the field.  Companies will always need a writer in their marketing department who can pitch their products (of course they will want marketing knowledge as well, but more knowledge never killed a person…at least not that I know of).  These careers do not even include ones that individuals create themselves.  If you find a need (perhaps even being hired to blog online) and fill that need, you might have an unexpected career.  You may even be able to combine a few careers to end up with an eclectic career, which could be more satisfying than pursuing just one option (such as with marketing and writing, or game development and writing). In my opinion, the world is in need of some better scriptwriters.  If I can quote another movie line before the character says it, in a movie I have never seen, I may just scream.  If you are talented with art and also want to write, you could be a cartoonist and one can never have too many cartoons.  There is also a fairly large market for many varieties of manga.  There really are tons of possibilities out there, so best of luck finding the one that is “just right” for you.  The journey is the best part, finding your path though is sometimes the hardest part.  Good luck to everyone!  Sheesh, the Hunger Games just popped into my head and I almost quoted it.  Anywho…have a stupendous day!