Consider The Writer

This week has been all about preparing for the Greater Grad Career Fair Downtown. Appropriate yet stylish new suit? Check. Ironed button-down shirt in the loudest color I could get away with? Bright pink, yeah! Panty hose and heels? …unfortunately, yes. Twelve resumes on cardstock paper? Got it. 60-second promotional speech on what a professional writer could do for them? Yes…wait, what?

I came to the career fair intending to sell my business minor and my previous work experiences. (I’m interning at a publishing company! I used to teach French college students to speak and write English!) Oklahoma is known for their oil and gas industries and not their writers. I was amazed when I realized they were actually interested in my Blog Critics articles, my blog and that I worked on the paper in high school.

One statement I’m not sure I responded to well enough was “You seem to be into the creative side of writing.” They were looking for a technical writer. The real question was, “Could you handle the business side of writing?” My answer to that is, Absolutely.

But how could someone who aspires to be a fantasy novelist possibly possess the skills to write about management or IT?

The proof is in the practice not the content.

Here are three things writers are universally that make them universally valuable:

First, writers are researchers. It doesn’t matter if I’m writing a news story or a character sketch or an instruction manual. Before anything goes down on the page, I have to believe without a shadow of a doubt that I know what I’m talking about. The agreement when a reader chooses to spend their time on our writing is that we won’t waste their time by being uninformed. That’s trust. That goal is also applicable in any respectable job field. A person unafraid to spend the time getting her work right is invaluable.

Second, writers are teachers. A writer bangs furiously on the keyboard for three main reasons: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. Informing is arguably the most important. We love to share our knowledge and experiences. If you don’t believe me, think briefly of the massive self-help section in Barnes & Noble. We love teaching! In our (sometimes unsolicited) wisdom, we strive to connect you to the reverence we have for human rights, politics, conservation and, yes, shoes. We translate political-speak into something that makes sense for you. We take apart difficult concepts (what exactly happened to the economy, anyway?) discard the finger-pointing and give you what is important. Successful companies are founded on excellent communication (as are all relationships.) Successful communication is what writers do.

Third, writers are self-motivated. Writing is not a profession people go into for profit. There isn’t a niche for writers who hate writing but want someone to pay them. Writers without passion don’t fare well. They never make it that far. Part of this is because our passion is directly proportional to the amount of money we make. Yeah, we could just write that one piece for the paper or magazine per month, but we’d like to use the air conditioner this summer so we’ll pick up other opportunities to make that happen. If we’re very lucky, we’ll spend months and months and months locked up in the home office trying to create the next bestseller while our friends have forgotten what we look like and our family is afraid to knock on the door because of what happened "last time." Giving unlimited time to a profession that may never give back the amount of time we spent on self-educating and creating isn’t for the weak of heart. That’s passion, dear readers. There are plenty of employees out there, but tell me: how many are passionate about what they do?

The job hunt is getting worse every day, and the girl with the ‘Professional Writing’ sticker isn’t always taken seriously. She knows, however, that she’s every bit as capable of doing a great job as the business majors. So please, esteemed readers, consider the writer.