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Creative writing

Creative writing involves a variety of roles and settings. The information here covers screenwriting, online content, playwright, writing fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

If you are interested in exploring other areas connected with writing you may like to research our other job sector pages of journalism, publishing, creative industries and advertising, marketing and PR.

The career of a writer can be extremely rewarding, allowing creativity and independent working. The rewards of seeing work in the public domain provide a sense of achievement.

However, it can also be unpredictable with periods of lone working, working to deadlines, irregular work and pay, and it requires dedication, persistence and self-motivation.

Find out about creative writing

See the Society of Authors website for background information, news items and advice. 

Check Prospects’ job sector pages, covering media and internet, creative arts and design and its generic job profiles (linked from the job sector pages), such as writer.

Use the members dictionary on the Publishers Association to further explore publishers and their opportunities.

The Writers and Artists Yearbook is an invaluable resource, including listings of agents.

If you're interested in scriptwriting, visit the BBC Writersroom website for a range of resources, including interviews, advice and toolkits.

Attending conventions and conferences, such as Crimefest, the international crime writers' convention in Bristol, can help you develop your knowledge of the industry, as well as providing a good opportunity to meet people and develop your networks.

As well as your creative output, you’ll also need to work on marketing yourself and your work. An agent or a publisher is likely to help with publicity, but it's important that you also look for opportunities yourself, such as:

  • writing a blog
  • creating a presence via social media
  • interviews
  • readings
  • setting up your own website
  • workshops and signings

For more specific training, you could consider the following:

  • Organisations such as the Arvon Foundation and Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre provide regular courses where practising and published writers run workshops
  • Look out for courses in creative writing or novel writing at your local adult education centre
  • Some towns and cities have a resident writer who runs courses and gives advice. Ask at your local library for details

There are many literary consultancy agencies, such as Cornerstones, which for a fee offer detailed feedback and advice to writers seeking publication.

Use of AI in creative writing

The perceived threats of AI on the future of human writers has become a key topic for discussion and protest (members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike in 2023 partly because of the fear AI would replace professional writers). Other areas of concern include the implications around ownership and creativity, and the use of exisiting work to train AI.

For more thoughts and observations of the impact of AI, see the following articles:

What skills do I need?

Your strengths and skills will evolve as a writer and knowing your strengths can be helpful in supporting your writing practice and yourself as a creative practitioner.

  • Resilience - writing can be unpredictable so you must be resilient and produce a steady output of work, which will help
  • Time management and good organisation - help in effectively determining and directing own workload and meeting deadlines 
  • Curiosity - find out what sparks your passion or where your beliefs align. Keeping up to date with what kind of writing is selling is also important
  • Creativity - writing work will involve coming up with ideas for stories, characters or discovering facts and relevant information
  • Analysis and research - in-depth research is a large part of the writing process and writers need to critically assess their work and rework it
  • Attention to detail - proofreading and editing are important, even when work might be professionally proofread and edited before publication
  • Negotiation and networking - understanding the publishing process and how to market work effectively can help

See where in-house content creation or editing skills are needed not only in the 'literary' world. You have transferable skills and can build up a network and CV via entry level, part-time volunteer, and intern positions at places like charities or companies, which have in-house magazines or outward communications (press releases etc) or even political parties and campaigning organisations. The Media Mentor can be a great place to start.

For more information about skills, see the York Strengths Professional Skills page.

Work experience

Say ‘Yes’ to working out of your comfort zone, and don't limit yourself, consider gaining experiences within all areas of the creative field. Spend a lot of time in environments involving writing and publishing and enquire what support is available to help your development such as mentoring schemes.

  • There are excellent resources, tips, and opportunities available from national bodies such as the National Centre for Writing
  • Create a portfolio of your written work, especially any published work. This provides evidence of your writing skills and helps establish your writing reputation
  • For script writing (film or theatre), approach local drama groups to see if they welcome scripts or if they have any projects you could support or collaborate on 
  • Look out for writing or communications volunteer roles with:
  • Look at various mentoring roles with Super Power Agency
  • Gain experience through networking and attending events (eg the Scottish Poetry Library and the Manchester Poetry Library. Keep an eye on Explore York; get to know what's happening in this sector locally)
  • Look for seasonal work with literary festivals and prize-awarding bodies. Check The Glossary as an example for upcoming events
  • Explore possible opportunities to support community organisations with arts and creative writing sessions. See Creative Lives for examples
  • Join professional and campaigning organisations (check if the University subsidises membership, and/or if there are access or discounted programmes for emerging talent) such as the Society of Authors and English PEN. Look into the National Union of Journalists and the Writers Guild of Great Britain
  • Get involved with The Society of Young Publishers. Apply for, or proactively propose, internships. Ask for work experience or work shadowing. Check for special projects or events that might need short-term staff or volunteers
  • The North of England has many excellent independent poetry publishers such as Carcanet and Bloodaxe. Arc specialises in poetry in translation. Peepal Tree Press is Caribbean-focused but not exclusively so
  • If you're interested in zines or small creative publishing, check out the Glasgow Zine Library and attend the Small Publishers Fair. Always introduce yourself! Look for entry level jobs directly on academic press websites. These often provide in-house training, once you are in (eg Oxford University Press).  Familiarise yourself with industry publications, like The Bookseller
  • If you speak other languages, consider getting professional translation or interpretation training, or improve your skills and get certification. You could work in offices abroad with international clients or on international stories, or even from home or freelance, in translating or interpreting. Remember, if you're an international student, you are not permitted to undertake freelance/self-employed work
  • Find experience close to home, eg volunteering with services that support migrants and refugees or second language speakers in contexts such as hospitals or via reputable citizen media such as Global Voices. The Linguist List is a useful resource for actual jobs, and for researching and getting an overview of jobs so that you can think about what you need to do next to qualify
  • Writer development agencies often have work opportunities in other aspects of the books industry if you choose to apply for a staff position as well as (or instead of) pursuing the writer development itself. If your intention is to be a creative writer, you may end up with a writing-related portfolio career including giving workshops or you may have a day job unrelated to writing. Creative writers have a range of jobs including with the Scottish Parliament and as horticulturists! Writer development agencies include: Spread the Word (London); Commonword (Manchester); New Writing North
Find jobs

Jobs in writing can overlap with other sectors such as: journalism, publishing, media, marketing/advertising and communications. However, there are also many other exciting opportunities within the field of writing itself where your transferable skills may be helpful.

Most writers work freelance and are self-employed, and many manage their writing work alongside full or part-time jobs. This work may be related to their writing (such as lecturing and teaching on creative writing courses) or entirely unrelated.

There are also opportunities for writers in areas such as mobile phone content, computer game scripts and becoming a published novelist also writing reviews and literary criticism. You may also be interested in STEM and consider becoming a technical writer in the science, engineering and pharmaceutical sectors, see technical author. Other areas such as teaching, journalism, librarianship or publishing will require further vocational training.

Useful jobs sites include:

What can I do at York?

There are lots of things you can do right now at university to help you get the skills and experience for a career in creative writing.

  • Join a relevant student society (eg Inklings, International Anthology Society and Poetry Society) and get involved - as well as having fun, you'll be developing skills such as teamwork, organisation, project management and more.
  • Keep an eye out for relevant events to build your skills and meet potential employers.
  • Look for other opportunities to develop your creativity, communication and time management skills. Check our volunteering pages for ideas.
  • Check for internship opportunities in York through York Internships, advertised on Handshake
  • Consider a placement year to get twelve months of real-world experience where you can develop your transferable skills or sector insights
  • Listen to relevant episodes of our What do you actually do? podcast
  • Get involved in enterprise activities to develop your commercial awareness. Afterall, publishers are business first and foremost
  • Get involved with student media - there are opportunities to get experience in print, online, magazine, TV and radio
More resources: people to follow, podcasts, blogs

Other useful websites

Connect with York graduates 

Join York for Life to connect with our global network of alumni. Start building your own network - find people from your course, look at different careers, ask questions and request a mentor.

Use LinkedIn to make connections, follow organisations of interest, and find out what York graduates are doing. Find out more about using LinkedIn and networking.

Podcast

Keep up to date with the sector and learn about the types of jobs available with relevant episodes of our podcast, What do you actually do?

Other areas of Podcasts that may be of interest to you:

People to follow

Some individuals in the books industry such as Katie Ailes (creative arts), Hamza Jahanzeb (publishing and editing), and Sam Missingham (publishing and activism) are worth following online for the variety of resources that they create, promote, and/or host.

Carole Blake, From Pitch to Publication, still offers good advice, as well as an insight into the books industry a generation ago at the moment when it began to change dramatically.