Copy Writing (Writing Copy), By Melinda Toynton

So, every time you pick up a newspaper, magazine, or browse the internet, you are bound to see advertisements, lots and lots of them. Ever wonder who writes all of these catchy ads? The answer is a copywriter. Writing copy for a client basically means creating the best way, through words, to attract a targeted audience. Many people work from home as freelance copywriters and others work for copy writing or search engine optimization (SEO) companies. This is a career that doesn’t necessarily require fancy college degrees, extensive experience, or a large start up budget. There are necessary skills which will ensure a person’s success in this industry and there are steps you can take to build a lucrative career in copywriting.

About Memoir and Personal Essay

Non-fiction writing is currently the most marketable form of writing: copywriting, technical writing, news writing, and the stuff of cookbooks—these are some common forms. In Memoir: A History Yagoda notes that nonfiction currently outsells fiction four to one. He adds that “total sales in the categories of Personal Memoirs, Childhood Memoirs, and Parental Memoirs increased more than 400 percent between 2004 and 2008”. The niche of creative non-fiction covers a range of genres most recognizable by a strong sense of voice: personal essay, memoir, feature writing. Much of the content on This American Life constitutes as creative nonfiction, and for the purpose of this paper I will focus on memoir and personal essay writing. The distinction from the two can be ambiguous at times, so I’ll divide this paper into a discussion about each.

You're Writing About What....From Where?—by Derek Pettie

Travel writing sounds like a phenomenal career for an English major, so why not start off this exploration in Mongolia.  Well I'm not there, but that is where I found Bill Donahue, a freelance writer who has written for magazines such as The Atlantic, Backpacker, and Runners World, newspapers like the Washington Post and The Oregonian, and news website Salon.com.  While waiting for his second email, I speculated what he was doing on the other side of the world: trekking in the Sayan Mountains, traveling across the country’s 1900 miles on horseback or covering the Horse procession documenting Ghengis Khan’s 850th anniversary?  Actually he had “scared” up a smaller story to write about, cycling from Ulanabatoor, Mongolia’s capital city, 35 miles to the world's largest statue of Khan, before traveling to Bejing for an article on American ultra-marathoner, Diane Van Deren. 

Jealous yet?

If the answer is yes, then it's time to delve further into what the job entails.  Travel writing is more than just reviews and is primarily about the writing rather than the travel.  An important distinction to make.  Whether a piece is written about a pilgrimage to Djibouti to discover what chewing Khat leaves is all about, or covering a destination or event near your home, what matters is the quality of the writing.  Frank Bures, a freelancer from Minnesota, has focused on building his career by improving as a writer, instead of trying to get published in high-profile publications.  This has had led to pieces in Outside, Bicycling and he is currently working on a story for Harpers.

Still interested?

Advertising by Zack Little

Advertising

If you have been watching any television in the last couple of years, you might have stumbled across a program by the name of Mad Men. Set in the 1960's at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency, it follows the story of Don Draper, a creative director. But what does Don Draper do while at work? If the show is any indicator, he's simply there to consume as much scotch and as many cigarette's as he can fit into a workday. Oh an occasionally he finds time to pitch a good advertisement to a big client in order to save the day. It all sounds like a cool job if you ask me. But is this the real world of advertising? Let's take a look at what advertising has to offer to the world and you.

The Ghost and the Subject

Lynn Vincent is a successful politically conservative writer. Her background led former U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin to choose Vincent to co-author her autobiography Going Rogue: An American Life.  The book turned out to be one of the publishing industry's biggest successes of the year, but was also panned by critics across the board. Stephen Davis was chosen in 1988 to pen the autobiography of pop star Michael Jackson entitled Moon Walk. Though Jackson was one of the biggest artists in the history of music, the book was only on the shelves for a limited time due to Jackson's refusal to have it released in paperback. Obviously the life of a ghostwriter can be wildly unpredictable. Vincent's book was a commercial success and a critical failure. Davis' book could have been the biggest selling autobiography of a musician ever written, but was marginalized due to the wishes of his subject. The similarity between the two writers is that they both got paid handsomely, whereas many of their peers, who were too proud to lower themselves to write for other people, never had a single review of their novel or made a living by writing it.

Ghostwriting has many advantages over other kinds of writing careers. Ghostwriters get to write about an array of subjects, many of which they normally wouldn't, with people that often lead interesting lives. These are people that are largely inaccessible, sometimes great minds who stand at the precipice of the fields they have achieved notoriety within.