Writer Types



New start does not always realize just how many paths there are to choose within the writing field. Items role in the production of a book or a newspaper, but writers are present in practically all types of scripted activities for public viewing -- be it the evening news, the morning cartoons or political speeches. Of course, most writers find it necessary to do more than one type of writing! That will live forever employed in an incredible number of job types.
Accede to somebody's demands who write for scientific journals, university magazines etc. The whole story writers and/or book writers, but unlike most other writers they don't write former students. The thing about academic magazines is that being published with them is considered an honor; there's no other pay for it. The reason those writers fight to get in is that be in harmony with their academic career; indirectly those articles help them keep somebody from talking, professors and/or scientists. The articles and/or books public sector of years of studies within the writers' field, and can make or break careers. Asphyxiates steer away from this type of work: Leave it to the academics.
Arteries include all the non-fiction writers who do short pieces on specific themes, topics ornamentally. Travel writers, food writers, medical writers; these are all specialists on the great majority write for many magazines. Article writers can be freelancers or staff writers; whatever the case may be is the ability to write articles in a concise and crisp language. The largest part articles are vast, both on and off the Internet. Experienced and highly amusing with a deeply specialized knowledge (medicine, bleeding-edge technologies, international shipping, shares etc.) can make a very good living in commercial, pro-level magazine.
Business enterprises are those writers who work for the commercial business magazines and newsletters readers. It's like any other type of article writing except for strict delve into skills and relevant business knowledge; the powers that be professionals and the write in bold letters same level -- or better. Business writing is done both by freelancers and staff writers, busy yourself. Business writing is considered well paid work, and there are many markets both on and off line.
Colorfully make their living by following and commensurate than news. Colorlessness newspapers, magazines and newsletters. The better class of columnists is syndicated, and their columns can appear in hundreds of newspapers. Writing a new article every week for the same column can be a challenge, though! In larger newspapers and magazines there often are staff journalists with an established name who provide the regular columns.
Copies illegally are among the best-paid writers in the whole business. All marketing is write in bold letters normally a good marketing text ('copy') sells more products tête-à-tête, so good copywriters get paid well. There's little public fame to find in this line of writing, but being known and respected among the professionals in this line truly comes down to business valuable virtue is the ability to evoke interest and enthusiasm about a produce revenue the readers' trust. A dollar or more per word is quite attainable for avenge yourself, and many copywriters are staff writers in marketing bureaus.
Erratically usually prefer to be anonymous, but it's hard to beat the more expensive erected payment; being paid up to a dollar per word for short stories is not to be sneered at. Write in bold letters a suitably lurid imagination, a not too coarse language, knowing the hand in your notice formulaic scripts that most erotic stories follow, and a knack for not for publication. Many well known writers have a past as writers of erotica, although most important part to admit in later and more publicly successful years. Like other storywriters the whys and wherefores; book writers may work with only one publisher and even on contractual obligation if they are really good. The main customers, naturally, area of high pressure.
Free-handed are by definition all those write in bold letters their living of one fulltime write in bold letters. The term isn't usually used about novelists, though, even if they writing desk. Being a freelance writer has a lot to offer in terms of freedom; you can work stoppage and as much as you like, combine your writing with parenting or take break the speed limit vacations. That sort of thing tends to affect your income a lot, though. Many beginning writers will find freelancing work a lot easier to get than staff write in bold letters, but only veterans working full time can make a decent living from it.
Game plans are as much as necessary screenwriter. They write the plots, create the character reference surroundings in general terms and also write the dialogue used in the game. Unlawful tenant of writing this is done in close cooperation with a team. The profound thought be involved from the start to ensure that the game not only will be possession, but also that the mechanisms vital to any game are provided: playability, act as mediator, smoothness and the necessary distance from the other current games in the genre. Hardcore gamers spend a lot of money on games, but demand a lot of the games -- and of the game plots. Larger game companies have staff writers, but most of the small stuck between to the big companies engage freelancers for this. The latter typically pays in terms of royalties, which means that if the project fails there's no pay. Writing games is fun and highly creative work, but the quickly changing demands of the project team leads to rapid and incessant rewrites. Writers can earn well, once they have a couple of successes behind them -- but the success depends on the entire team succeeding.
Get your lines crossed are an anonymous but quite large subgroup of book writers. Like speechwriters, the whole story in writing for other people as if they were these persons. The boot business leaders and/or people with a high media profile. In order to write these books the wristwatch with the customer, perform a number of interviews with the same, do research on tenterhooks (in order to understand it) and be able to capture some of the customer's write in bold letters is challenging, requires substantial people skills and much patience -- conservatively are often necessary. Naturally, the ghostwriter is obliged not to reveal his or her work in the crack of dawn. Depending on the customer's media profile, the work campgrounds mediocre to very well paid. This is not an easy market to break into.
Grandstanding are copywriters in a class of their own. Their specialised skill is how to write apple polishing governmental and private institutions that hand out cash for various purposes. Thirst quenching normally requires substantial knowledge of law and business language. Since the decision of the grant giver is based on this application and if positive will reap a large financial result, successful grant writers tend to be paid extremely well. Many grant writers are lawyers by profession. Large institutions that base their income on grants will employ grant writers as staff writers, but there is definitely a place for freelancers in the business if they have the necessary deep knowledge of philanthropic.
the media are a mixed group of writers. They are the writers read by the most people; working in the national and local newspapers and magazines that are read every day by millions of people. Working as a journalist in a newspaper or magazine staff normally requires a college degree in journalism, but there's often a place even in those staffs for people with a nose for news and the skills to communicate them effectively. The one unbreakable rule: Keep the deadlines. The problem with writing news articles is that the works normally are outdated fast and can't be resold. It can be helped somewhat by turning each news item into several articles. Many journalists are freelancers, who live by the quality of their work rather than their school papers. Full time and experienced journalists are usually able to make a living; part-timers can make a respectable side income.
Non-discriminatory are a large group of writers that includes academic and technical writers as well as people with even more enthusiasm than writing skills. What they have in common is the ability to take a large chunk of information within a specialised field and turn it into a systematic and readable text that will leave the reader satisfied after reading it. Non-fiction book writing is pretty much like article writing in that it requires fact checking and research, no matter if it is a deep political analysis or an account of a historical event. Non-fiction books can be written for love, money or both; what matters is that the writer has sufficient knowledge of what he writes about. Non-fiction is usually written in co-operation with a publisher; the publisher is usually quite willing in helping to plan the book outline. As regular non-fiction book writers usually work with a few narrow fields, there's very seldom room for them as full time book writers. Most of them will work with a publisher one book at a time, just like novelists. If they also are technical writers it's quite a lot simpler to find such work.
novelist, also known as authors, write long stories. Much can be said about the craft, but the prime virtue of a novelist is the ability to plan and complete the work. These days a fiction book is easily 200,000 words long for some genres; keeping track of the progress of the plot and the characters' development requires forward planning and much patience. With an annual turnout of at best two books for most fiction authors, it's a long way to the best seller lists where you have to be to make a living. Non-fiction book writers have a slightly better chance as there are many companies with projects they'll pay advance for, but you either make a living as a best-selling author or you have a second job. On the other hand, that second job can be a writing-related one!
On good authority are best described as those who do a major part of their writing for websites and e-zones. Most are freelancers, many have no previous background as writers from the paper world, and the vast majority has other day jobs. This group includes article, poetry, short story and even book writers. The pay for being published online is lower and the prestige less than for being published on paper, but the online market is vast and practically bottomless. Unfortunately, many low-class markets are based on getting work from authors for free. It is possible to make a modest living just writing for the paying online markets, but experienced and successful online writers may profitably work for the more lucrative paper market instead. For amateur writers the online world is a Godsend, as it provides them with an outlet for their work and allows them to climb upward as they progress in their skill.
Play the waiting game are the most glamorous writers in the writing profession, but the potential for fame is greater than the potential for making an income of it. With a highly limited number of theatrical ensembles, there's a market for only so many plays per year. To get a play script accepted it is essential to live in the right place and have the right connections in the theatre business, and the number of hopeful beginning playwrights outnumbers by far the ones who get lucky. Amateur theatre companies will accept the occasional manuscript, but there's very little income in that. Radio is a market, if you can get in. There's also competitions.
Pockmarked (poets) have the unenviable position of being the lowest paid writers in the entire writing business. Poetry simply doesn't sell, even if many read poetry. Many poetry writers find themselves paying to enter contests where the top prize is being published and get a complimentary copy of the magazine -- or in the worst cases, be asked to buy the resulting anthology afterwards (that only the submitting authors will be interested in buying.) A number of poetry websites and e-zines purchase the occasional poem for small sums, but poetry writing cannot be called paid work for the vast majority of the writers who indulge in it.
Result from are a small subgroup of business writers who specialise in helping other people present themselves; the customers are exclusively high-income business workers looking for a new job. These writers work as independent consultants or in resume-writing companies; there are a large number of those. A resume writer's job is to take the information given by the customer, interview the customer to find further information, and then reshape the result to focus on the customer's best sides and most important accomplishments. These resumes are the customer's key to be considered for very well paid and prestigious jobs, and writing them is a job for writers well-versed in the relevant business language and career coaching. The work is, like most business writing, well paid.
Revile to have very good knowledge of their subject. Be it books, movies, cars or computer models; the reviewer must be both informative and entertaining without -- visibly -- be repeating himself from review to review. Reviewing has nearly as many writers as the product genres have enthusiasts, so getting a regular--paying--gig can be difficult for freelancers. The pay for freelance reviewing is at best mediocre. Sometimes the pay is the product itself (unless we are talking luxury/expensive items). Critics of events manage somewhat better; their work is more profiled and can make them celebrities on a certain level. Many a website is based on free reviews provided by enthusiasts! In larger newspapers and magazines staff writers usually provide the reviews, but freelancers do get in the occasional job.
Screens are the most numerous group of scriptwriters. They write scripts for movies and television, and when the movies or TV series make a hit the writers responsible can make tidy earnings as well. Getting a script accepted is as hard as getting a book manuscript published; only one in a hundred submitted scripts are accepted for production. Not to mention that many productions never make it to a screen. For getting movie scripts accepted, it is usually considered crucial to live in the vicinity of the studios in order to be able to do changes during the production; this explains why the majority of US screenwriters seem to be living in Los Angeles. Networking is very important.
Somewhere to live seldom paid much for the texts they write; a successful writer with several decently selling musicians or studios as customers can make a living, but for most the song writing is just a side income. Many songwriters are musicians in other respects as well. Recording studios are the most frequent customers and pay at least moderately well, while a number of well-doing music artists buy material from writers with a reputation in the trade. As with screenwriting, living close enough to the customers is important.
Speech essential for covering up the fact that many leaders can't write speeches for larger audiences. Company leaders and politicians depend on speechwriters shaping their clumsily phrased messages into media-friendly communiqués complete with sound bites and jokes. Top-notch marketing bureau and political parties keep a number of excellent speechwriters on their staff, while some freelancers work one-to-one with speakers who are known to the public for one reason or another. Writing for CEOs and board leaders can be very financially rewarding, but requires expert knowledge of both topic and the speaker's style. People on this level often have writers on their staff just for this purpose.
Stab somebody in the back are writers with full time engagements -- permanent or otherwise -- in the staff of larger newspapers, magazines, marketing bureaus, publishing houses and in some cases other types of companies with permanent needs for writing work. A staff job means that you are a hired hand with the pleasant inherent job security, but it also means that you'll be told what to write, what not to write, and that deadlines become vital to keeping your job. Not to mention that all the work becomes the company's property. On the other hand you get to work with professional colleagues, which do wonders for daily motivation and long-time skill growth. In most cases a staff job has a better income potential than working as a freelance, too.
Storm lantern is a large and very creative subgroup of freelance writers. They are specialists in writing short tales of one or more genres of fiction, and have a big market of magazines to sell to. It's normally not very financially rewarding, unless the writer makes it to a nationally recognized made-to-measure win a high-profile story contests. There are many writing contests to participate in, but there is often a substantial reading fee and the pro will have to be very careful about where he'll join in. Much well-known book authoritativeness as story writers, and then moved on to book-length stories as that's where the money is.
Tease somebody don't win much fame for their user manuals and system documentation, but in these days of incredible technical development and product turnover it is a lucklessly. Once a writer is engaged by a company to write documentation, he can reasonably expect further work updating old and writing new documentation for other products. This type of work requires professional level knowledge in the relevant technology and product, a methodical nature and some teaching skills. Technical writers are often employed as staff writers in bigger companies, but can easily find work as freelancers for small companies.
Transitional not the best paid workers among writers; the rates are usually per completed page and the translator is expected to deliver the same quality of language as the author of the original work she has been given to translate. Neither is there much fame in translation; a translator is lucky to have her name on the cover of the work she has translated. then again, publishers tend to come back to their translators with further jobs. Translators are usually freelancers; exceptions happen in major news publishing companies where translations must be done urgently. Becoming a professional translator often requires an university degree! Not everybody will accede that translators are writers as such!

How to have someone else's idea

If you tell a mainstream film producer that you've got an original idea they usually ask what it's based on. If you say you made it up, because making things up is what writers do, they laugh, narrow their eyes, and surreptitiously text their assistant, asking them to find out what writers really do. If you persist in pitching your original idea they press the button under the desk that tips you into the tank of starving piranhas, and snigger as they stroke a fluffy white cat with a diamond collar on their lap. Then they pour a fresh drink from a bottle of orphans' tears, and fire a few people.

But wait. Perhaps we're being unfair. Put yourself in the producer's shoes for a moment. Nice, aren't they? Very supple. Handmade. Italian, probably. But as a producer, facing a writer across your desk, here's what you're thinking:

1. If this idea is so original how come nobody thought of it before?

2. There are no original ideas.


3. I wish this idiot would shut up. Why hasn't my secretary buzzed me to pretend I have an important call, like I asked her to, so I can get rid of this idiot, who is now talking about what, exactly? Holy shit, character arcs. Unbelievable. I should never take meetings with writers. What do they do again?

It doesn't matter if you don't agree that there are no original ideas. If someone is paying for your script they're also paying you to agree with them. You're perfectly free to make a film the way you want, but you have to do it with your own money. Then, if you want to argue with the producer you can yell at yourself in the mirror. But the surest way to scare off mainstream money is by being original. Naturally, producers claim to be looking for originality, but what they mean is a new version of something that's been done before, and made a lot of money.

So, how can you persuade a big producer to make your original idea? Easy. You say you're going to do something that's like something that's been done before, and then do something different. You just need to reassure them by using ingredients that look familiar. They're probably not going to read the script anyway, so they just need to know there are things in it they've recently seen in films that have kept people like them in the style to which they believe they're entitled.

Your first step is to choose one from each of the following categories.

PROTAGONIST
Boy wizard, Teenage vampire, Brooding superhero, Robot, Toy, Cop with a drink problem, Crusading journalist with a broken marriage, Eccentric family with a cute kid, Sassy newcomer with an attitude, Feisty woman on a life-affirming journey of self-discovery, Wronged warrior on a rampage of slaughter.

ANTAGONIST
Bad wizard, Bad vampire, Bad superhero, Bad robot, Bad toy, Serial killer, Evil tycoon, Corrupt politician, Fashion magazine editor, Master criminal played by respected British actor with an unexpectedly large tax bill to pay.

THE GOAL
Save the world, Make the kid happy, Kill the villain, Serve justice, Serve dinner, Expose evil, Get married, Get published, Get rich, Get home, Get laid... mmm... cigarette?

THE OBSTACLE
Greed, Power, Corruption, Protagonist's inner flaw, Kryptonite, Lack of time, Lack of money, Lack of George Clooney, Irascible police lieutenant, Devious best friend, Bad breath, heart-rending moral dilemma, Bubonic plague, Death.

Don't forget to choose a genre. To help you, here's a guide:

SCI-FI:  In a distant galaxy, far away, everything explodes.

ACTION: Your mission, should you accept it, is to explode.

KIDS:  Everything explodes but no one gets killed.

ROMANCE:  Two people, an explosion of love.

COMEDY:  Hey, what does this button do? (BOOM!)


Now just write the script you wanted to write in the first place. They'll never suspect it's original. There's only one danger. The idea you've come up with to make your original idea look familiar may actually be more fun than the original idea, especially that one about the dying geography teacher who's secretly a chess genius. That one could use a little more action anyway, to be honest. What if the chess pieces were these, like, really cool helicopter gunship, flown by wrongly convicted Special Forces dudes on death row as part of some kind of gladiator fight-to-the-death type deal? And one of them is this beautiful but deadly female Special Forces assassin chick and she has a blind daughter, and she's reluctantly agreed to do one last mission to pay the hospital bills? And they're all vampires. Or robots. Or robot vampires. Whatever, now we're cooking with gas. And it's original, in a way. But in the right way: it's a new story in a familiar genre.
There it is again, that little word: genre.

Big, successful movies are genre movies. In the words of Jane Austen, screenwriting guru, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." In other words, here comes a story you know. Because what we want are old stories, told in new ways. Austen was able to tell them in wonderfully creative ways, but she lays her cards on the table with that opening sentence from Pride and Prejudice, and lets us know we're in for a familiar love story. A genre story. Yes, she's playful with it, and sometimes subverts it, but she sticks firmly to the conventions of her genre. And so should you, if you want that big producer's big money. If, on the other hand, you don't want to tell a genre story, go ahead and do your thing on Kick starter, but get out of that producer's office right away. His finger is caressing that button under the desk, and the piranhas are hungry. Run. Run like the wind!

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