The Writing Life: Writers Must Wear Many Hats

As a writer, I get a lot of enjoyment telling stories—whether the stories of others or my own stories. Crafting those details on my computer screen is a lot of fun. Yet as a writer, the task is much more diverse than just telling stories. As writers, we must wear many different hats and play many different roles.

Many years ago as a young journalist, I learned a life-long lesson about myself and what I do. I love to write, craft stories and put these words on paper then figure out how to share them with the world. Admittedly many others want to do this skill as well and at times it is a challenge to make a living in this work—but possible. There are many ways to use your writing. Many people focus on books but your writing can be used in many different ways. I detail some of the possibilities in the first chapter of Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. Get this free chapter here and look at the different writing possibilities.

I've written more than a dozen books for other people as a co-author and a ghostwriter. As a part of that writing process, I get to pretend to be in the mind and shoes of that other person. This little mind trick is one of the ways to successfully write those stories for others. As a part of my writing life, I spent 17 years with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Ten of those years were in linguistics then I returned to my writing and began writing for magzines and eventually my first book was published. During this period, my children were small and I would do some of my writing at the Wycliffe office—often on a Sunday afternoon. Almost no one was at the office during this period.

I noticed a light on in the director's office. On the way to my office I walked past to see who was there. To my surprise it was bestselling author Jamie Buckingham. Twice a year without any fanfare, Jamie came to our office and wrote the donor letter and various articles for our Wycliffe director. His name never appeared on these articles but Jamie was the storytelling pen behind this writing. He would tell me, “Terry, today I'm a jungle pilot in the jungles of Peru, South America.” I met people who gave to many different missions and said they normally tossed the donor letters and did not read them—but every time they read the Wycliffe donor letter. They loved trhe storytelling in that letter and behind it was the pen of Jamie Buckingham.

As a writer, we need to learn to pitch our work to the media, to editors and to literary agents. We have to learn to write documents called “book proposals” and others called “query letters” in this pitch process. Some people would call this pitching process, marketing. Your writing just stays on your own website or your own notebooks if you don't learn to pitch. It's another skill you need to learn and develop as a writer.

Also writers have to become editors—at least of their own writing. I will often write something, set it aside for several hours or days, then return to it and rewrite or edit it. Editng your own writiing is a skill each of us have to develop and then use over and over as writer.

Writers are also researchers to compile information and find interesting facts and statistics. We have to learn to ask good questions to get the stories and information that we need from others.

As our books get published, we have to become proofreaders (or hire an expert at this point in the process). Also in this process we need to gather endorsements and have to be connected to others in order to get these endorsements. Networking and your connections to others as a writer is another important skill or hat.

In this article, I've given you a starting point. We need a diverse set of skills in this business or wear multiple hats. Which hat are you wearing today? Have I missed some roles or hats? Let me know in the timments below.

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Writers must wear many different hats or roles. This prolific editor and author details some of them in this article. (ClickToTweet)