The Writing Life: Navigating a Career of Twists and Turns

By Sharon Gloger Friedman – Guest Blogger

I have been writing professionally for 40 years, and if I have learned anything in that time, it’s that the life of a writer has a way of following its own course, frequently interrupted by forks in the road and unmarked detours.

Let me explain.

I began my writing career as a freelance writer. I wrote articles and essays for mostly small publications and an occasional well-recognized magazine, all the while hoping to write a novel. Assignments dribbled in, and while I was publishing enough pieces to stroke my ego, I wasn’t making enough money to keep my dogs in Kibbles N Bits. Frequent dry spells and a shoe box filled with rejection letters ate away at my confidence, and any hopes I had of writing as a full-time career were quickly fading. Worse, the novel of my dreams existed only in my head. It was at this low point that I got the call that my request to interview the founder of a non-profit organization had been approved.  

Welcome to my detour.

The founder was charismatic. The organization was inspiring. I left with a great interview.  I also left with the promise to help spread the word about the group’s efforts pro bono. What started as an occasional press release, a few donor letters, and a couple of print ads, grew to a steady stream of “can-you-write…?” phone calls, and finally a job offer to come on board full-time. 

Then came the moment of decision. 

My freelance jobs had trickled to almost nothing. My novel was going nowhere.  It was a no-brainer: goodbye rejections slips; hello paycheck.

Now I was in a world of daily, sometimes hourly, deadlines. I produced brochures, wrote and edited a monthly newsletter, developed fundraising campaigns, crafted speeches, and oversaw the production and printing of the organization’s published materials. Not what I had envisioned as my writing career, but not bad either. I was still writing, albeit differently. I was stretching my creative muscles and learning new skills. I was earning a steady income. And I liked what I was doing.

Here comes that fork in the road.

My tenure with the non-profit ended eight years later when the headquarters moved to Washington, D.C. and I chose not to.  I quickly found employment as a direct marketing copywriter for a company that developed seminars and conferences. Twenty-two years later, I retired as Director of Marketing for the seminar division. It was a career that was personally and financially rewarding, and one that forced me to master new skills as the world went online and social media became an influential marketing tool.

A welcomed U-turn.

Retirement allowed me to return to writing articles, this time for an online audience via Yahoo Voices, Yahoo News, and Examiner.com.  I quickly found that all those years of meeting rigid deadlines, researching copy, negotiating with vendors, mastering online communication, and networking had improved my writing and bettered my ability to handle the business side of producing written work. 

So, what am I getting at? 

This: If you are willing to take the skills you have and apply them in a different way, and if you are open to learning new things, there are opportunities out there to live a rewarding writing life. You can apply your talents as a copywriter, editor, public relations writer, speech writer, technical writer, proposal or grant writer, travel writer, journalist, web-content writer, proofreader, or social-media specialist, among other careers. You can enhance your skills and as you do, watch your income grow. You just have to dare to travel the detours, navigate the forks in the road, and be alert to U-turns down the road.

And oh yeah, about that novel. I finally ran out of excuses for not writing the story I had been carrying around in my head all those years. Ashes was published November 2018. 

(Sharon Gloger Friedman was born and raised in South Florida and now happily resides in Georgia with her husband. “Ashes”, the novel that percolated for 40 years pays tribute to her immigrant relatives who toiled in the sweatshops of New York City trying to find a better life in America. I read it. It’s historical fiction of epic importance culminating in the horrendous impact of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. It’s so mesmerizing I couldn’t put it down.) – S.Simon