Author/Writer
You write it, then cut and rewrite until it sounds like you and nobody else. That voice is what makes writing worth paying for, and two paths lead in: steady commercial writing, or authoring your own books.
Related: Journalist, Content Creator, Editor
The day in the life
The poem · your opening
Bus stop, rain · ~20 lines
- •bus stop, rain, that in-between feeling
- •a couple of images circling, nothing written yet
- •the first line decides how the rest sounds
the blank page, before your first line
Three first lines, from three poems people sent Lena. Which one would you keep reading?
Try a day as a author/writer
A short, playful taste of the real work.
Writing for businesses pays a steady wage. Writing books is a gamble almost nobody wins.
Two ways in: a beginner job writing for a company, or write a book and sell it yourself online, which nobody can stop you doing.
BLS Writers and Authors (SOC 27-3043, median $72,270, May 2024; excludes self-employed) + Technical Writers (higher, separate); Authors Guild survey (median book-author income); Salary.com copywriter bands.
What you’d actually do
The picture is writing what you love in creative flow; the reality on the commercial side is writing to a brief under deadlines, with heavy editing, and book-authoring is mostly solitary, with most of the time spent marketing and most books earning little. Generic content and copy get drafted instantly now, so what holds value is a distinctive voice, persuasion that actually works, and the judgment to edit and direct the tools rather than be replaced by them.
- Drafting & writing40%
- Research15%
- Editing & revision20%
- Marketing & building an audience15%
- Admin & business10%
Most of the day is actually writing, with a good chunk spent fixing what you wrote yesterday.
Rough split, based on how writers describe the work. Varies a lot by commercial vs. creative.
What you write changes almost everything else about the job.
- Fictioninventing a story and characters from nothing.
- Nonfictionresearching something real and explaining it clearly.
- Copywritingwriting the words that sell a product or a brand.
- Screenwritingwriting dialogue and scenes meant to be filmed, not read.
A typical early-career day
- 9:00Read the brief
Get clear on what you’re writing and for whom: the brief, the audience, the constraints. Or research your own topic.
- 10:30Draft
Write the first version. Getting words down is the part people picture, and it’s a slice of the job.
- 1:00Edit & revise
Cut, sharpen, rewrite. This is the bulk of real writing, and where it actually gets good.
- 3:00Draft fast, you edit
The generic stuff gets produced fast; your voice and judgment are what make it worth reading.
- 4:00Pitch & market
Take client notes, pitch editors, or market your book. For authors, this eats more time than the writing.
A rough writer day. Commercial writing has steadier deadlines and pay; book-authoring is slower and more solitary, with the business side eating most of the time.
The outlook
Where it’s going
Salaried commercial writing is growing modestly, but AI is hitting the commodity layer hard: generic content, SEO, and first-draft copy are among the most exposed work anywhere, and machine-written books are flooding the self-publishing bottom. So the generic end is getting automated, while distinctive voice, persuasion that converts, and original ideas hold their value. The writer becomes the voice and judgment on top of the drafts.
Right now
Commercial writing has a real salaried floor, but its commodity end (generic content, SEO, first-draft copy) is the most exposed writing there is. Copywriting that converts and technical writing hold up better. Creative authoring is a brutal lottery (the typical author earns a few thousand a year), though the door is wide open and the work can be its own reward, so a steady paycheck means commercial or specialized writing, where voice and persuasion still matter.
Sources: BLS Writers and Authors (27-3043, +9%, May 2024); Authors Guild survey; self-publishing + AI-content reporting (2025-26). Dated June 2026.
Would you actually like it?
Worth a look if your writing sounds like nobody else, and you can use the tools to sharpen it without letting them write it for you.
In practice, people realize it’s their thing when…
- their writing sounds like nobody else, and they care how a sentence hits the person reading it
- they can let a tool fix their work, or take a first run at it, without it turning their writing into everybody else’s
- editing and revising, the slow work of making writing good, feels satisfying
- they would be happy writing for money: adverts, the words on a company’s website, the words actors say on screen
…and it probably isn’t their thing when
- they pictured writing whatever comes to them, and most paid writing is exactly what somebody asked for, changed a lot before it is done
- they are counting on writing books to pay: most people who write one earn only a few thousand dollars a year
- they were counting on the plain everyday writing companies need a lot of, which is among the first work computers took over
Write and Publish Your Own Story or Poems
Write a short story or a small book of poems, then put it somewhere anyone can read it. Write it first, then let AI suggest fixes and sharpen it without letting it take over. That last part is the whole skill, keeping the writing sound like you and nobody else, and it is harder than it sounds.