Your high school Literature teacher adored your poems. And now you ended up with Creative Writing major that brought Hunter S. Thompson to a questionable life path. How do you start your motion towards the earnings of Stephen King and glory of George R. R. Martin instead?

Practice every day. Sooner or later a pile of your scribbles will turn into your shiny hourly rate. And the bigger was the pile, the bigger will be the number. To get the consistent workflow, find a job where you’ll be writing every day. The careers below are suitable for the most college graduates.

Translations

The easy-peasy findable jobs are in translation . If you can speak more than one language, go for it. While the translation process doesn’t have much creativity in it, it’s a great starting point.

What’s in it for you? Re-writing text from different language will hone your stylistics. If you want to hit a jackpot, aim for so-called “creative translations”. They include localization for poetry, literature, TV series, foreign movies and blogs.

Where to find? Avoid online freelance platforms. They’re for episodic employment with low payment. It's best to apply for the full-time translator jobs in the localization agencies. Stick for a year or so to get most from your experience.

Editing and Proofreading

“Proofreader” may sound scary. You think “But I need a heap of experience to check other people’s writings!” The truth is, you don’t. That’s why proofreading is often done by Junior Executives.

What’s in it for you? For you, it will mean reading through a lot of texts - which is number one tool to enrich your own writing. Also, you will master re-writing sentences for the better clarity - which is the tool number two.

Where to find? You might not yet get into the newspaper or publishing house. Don't get discouraged. Content mills created a huge market for these jobs nowadays. Try reaching out through online hubs like Proofreadingservices.

Advertising / Copywriting

Marketing copywriting is the sweet spot for them who want to write few words and get huge bucks. Go for the Intern position in advertising, and you may build your career all the way up to the Creative Director quite soon. Now more likely than anytime before, as this industry hails the youth .

What’s in it for you? You will learn to write, what’s more - you will learn to sell with your writing. A priceless skill for a lifetime. Oh yeah, and it’s kinda fun most of the time. You do get a chance to unleash creativity in slogans, verses, long reads and short stories. As long as you don't write ads for an insurance company.

Where to find? Look at the job listings for the Intern or Junior vacancies opening in the ad agencies. There are minor differences between local boutiques and global networks. If you’re career-oriented, the latter has more opportunities for vertical growth.

Journalist / Blogger

We’re not speaking of newspaper reporters here. Think your favorite lifestyle magazine, news aggregator, free papers, newsletters. Behind every word in them, there is someone. Why not you?

What’s in it for you? Journalism is rewarding. It lets you immerse in subjects you’re most interested with and make a difference. You get a chance to influence people’s opinion. Be it on cactuses, equal rights, cleaning the kettle, you name it.

Where to find? Bulletin boards have thousands of openings for the blogger positions. Build up your portfolio by writing guest posts and start sending resume. Platforms like Medium are, too, a nice place for beginners to publish articles and get valuable feedback.

Content Writer / Technical Writer

Today, all the businesses have to be media businesses. So every company gets in-house content writers. As paper manufacturers, fashion outlets and daycares have to fill their social channels, this market grows fast.

Technical writing is applied to the businesses like engineering, industries, technology, and sciences. You’ll be translating the content from technical jargon to common language for manuals, trade reports, training materials and so on.

What’s in it for you? A consistent flow of the writing will make you a specialist in your field very soon. The extra know-hows coming from this kind of job are research, analytics and composition skills.

Where to find? Bulletin boards and job sites are the places to go. If you have interest in the certain field, pay attention to the “Careers” sections on the business sites. Every other one has a position open for an in-house writer.

Education / Essay writing

The more traditional field for applying your degree is teaching. You might apply for the English teacher position and become a Professor someday. Or, get to the industry through the backdoor of the paid essay writing.

What’s in it for you? The teaching job hardly needs any promotion at all. It's second most rewarding occupation. Besides, it gives you freedom. With a tad of experience, you can apply for a job in any of the International schools scattered over the world. Meanwhile, essay writing is a great way to make money and educate yourself on the plenty of subjects.

Where to find? Start with your local schools websites. They might be hiring primary or secondary school teachers right now. If you aim for the high education career, get to the academic job market. Yet, you will need publications to be considered a candidate for Professor’s job. Nothing like that for the paper writing service - register and get your first orders rolling in.

Ghostwriting

It sounds like a name of the band. It’s cool no less. Ghostwriters draft the books for the people who are too busy or not skilled enough to write. Think businessmen, politics, and celebrities. Sounds good?

What’s in it for you? The pros of ghostwriting are many. First, you actually write books. Second, you save time writing directly from your subject. Third, it pays between $5000 to $10000 per manuscript. One huge con is that you never get to put your name on it. It takes guts to step back from your ambitions this far.

Where to find? Freelance resources have lots of orders like these. Join UpWork and set your specialization to ghostwriting. Note that as you build up your portfolio, you’ll need a permit from your clients to showcase your works.

Fiction Writing

And, at the end of the day, you can also be, well, a writer. It became easier as the sites like Amazon launched self-publishing services. For the starters, you can write short stories and sell them for several bucks. Want a hint? An army of fans is more than willing to pay for romance novels and erotic stories. Might this be a way to pave your road into big literature?

Write more, everywhere

As the world goes crazy about information, humanity needs more and more skilled wordsmiths. The ability to write well is a huge asset anywhere. So if you’re lucky enough to have a Creative Writing Major, just start writing today. You’re doomed to succeed