Creative Writing
Susie started writing in the fifth grade. The teacher assigned the class to read a book and do a report on it. After she finished the assignment, Susie decided to write her own book and report on it as well. “I was hooked,” she says. “I began publishing professionally while still a high school student.” Susie has now written 47 books.

Creative writing obviously focuses more on writing creatively, perhaps using more emotion and first-person perspectives. You’re able to editorialize (place more of your own feelings and slant into the piece you’re crafting) a bit more, whereas pure journalism zeroes more on facts and a third-person view.

“Though I served on my junior high and high school newspaper staffs, my expertise lies more in the area of creative writing. And because of my background in drama,” Susie says, “I have a great blend that enables me to ‘hear’ dialogue as I write it, flesh out a fun intro and pour emotion throughout the piece I’m creating.

“When I write a book I ‘throw up.’ Guess I’d better explain! I had a wonderful creative writing professor in college who said, ‘Don’t wait until you’re inspired to write. Train yourself to simply WRITE.’ She went on to give an example: ‘What if you’re assigned an article on stewardship? You may never be inspired to write about stewardship, but if you have a deadline, you know you need to meet it. So train yourself to sit down and simply think through your fingers.’

“Because of that great advice,” Susie continues, “I’ve been able to sit in front of a computer and make myself write. In other words, I ‘throw up’ words on the screen—then go back and edit it later. But the problem of writer’s block that many aspiring writers have is simply making themselves get started.”

Newspaper Journalism
While Martha has enjoyed diagramming sentences and taking spelling tests since she learned the alphabet, she got her first taste of journalism in high school. “I was on my high school newspaper staff and eventually became the editor,” Martha says. “I enjoyed being in-the-know as part of the staff and seeing students and teachers reading my articles.”

In college, Martha again joined the newspaper staff and held different roles such as office manager, staff writer, features editor and entertainment editor. To build her resume, she also completed summer internships with a weekly newspaper and a daily paper.

“That hands-on experience was so valuable,” she says. “I learned how to pick up the phone and schedule an interview with a complete stranger, how to work with a staff and how to write on deadline.”

While Martha’s true dream was to work for Brio after college, she first received the position of community editor for a weekly newspaper in the suburbs of Minneapolis.

“As the community editor, I wrote articles about everything from new businesses to city council meetings. The hardest part was getting familiar with such a wide range of issues, but I learned a lot about what makes a city run,” she says.

A great thing about newspaper journalism is its fast pace. Many reporters will start and finish an assignment in one day, then see their hard work in print within 24 hours. A second aspect that makes newspaper journalism unique is spending some time out of the office for interviews, city meetings or to attend special events.

Magazine Journalism
After college, Ashley did a five-month internship with Cooking Light magazine. (Which is ironic, because she’s a very picky eater and doesn’t do much cooking!) Ashley had been editor of her high school newspaper and had taken journalism classes in college, but she learned that magazine writing has its own style.

“Working with a monthly deadline was interesting,” she says. “We’d be working on stories about Thanksgiving dinner in April, and the food editors would be sampling Christmas cookie recipes in May! Learning to write four or five months ahead can be tricky, so it helps to be creative and think outside the box.”

Magazine journalism often involves interviews and lots of research to make articles accurate, but there’s more room for creativity than in straight news reporting. Authors can include some of their personality in the article, especially if they write a monthly column. Depending on the magazine, writing can be personal and is often based on the author’s own experiences.

“Even though I wasn’t interested in writing for a cooking magazine, I learned from my internship how the editorial process works and how an article idea ends up as a published story. It was a great learning experience about the magazine world in general,” Ashley says. “I enjoyed the challenge of creating a monthly issue but liked not having the stress and pressure of daily deadlines.”

Is Writing for Me?
If you’re interested in a career in writing, you’ll be excited to know the many different areas of writing available: travel, advertising, fiction, devotional, instructional and many more! We talked about only three areas here.

If you think you’d like to write professionally, ask your English or journalism teacher to give you some honest feedback about your writing. He or she can help you discover your strengths and help you build on them. Not everyone is creative, and not everyone can handle the quick deadlines of newspaper journalism.

For example, Susie isn’t good at math. Never has been, probably never will be. Trying to write about Springfield’s 2009 budget for the Daily Herald would be a nightmare! Pray about your abilities. And instead of striving to be something you’re not naturally gifted at, ask God to help you discover the skills He’s blessed with you and focus on those.