Creative Writing
Diploma CRW12
Journalism, Editing & Publishing
Learning Method: Correspondence with online support

Career opportunities include: Fiction Writer, Short Story Writer, Non-Fiction Writer, Poet, Children's Writer, Script Writer, Media Writer, Novelist.

Industries include: publishing, media, education, corporate.

Writers plan and write literary or other written work for publication or performance. Writers may create original pieces of written work such as poetry, novels, short stories, biographies, plays, or film, radio and television scripts. They may also write for multimedia distribution, such as CD-ROMs and the internet. A writer may:

• choose themes or subjects for written work, conduct research into the subject and gather background material
• plan and organise material and write the work
• revise or edit the work, making sure that the style is consistent, there is proper development of the theme, plot and characterisation, and there is correct referencing
• set out the original manuscript so that it is clear and legible and submit the work to a publisher
• work with other specialists, such as scriptwriters, software developers, graphic designers and illustrators, to create multimedia works.

Writers may specialise in:

• fiction writing
• general interest non-fiction
• journalism
• children's books
• story writing
• poetry
• educational textbook writing
• corporate writing
• copywriting
• autobriographies
• technical writing and document

Work may be commissioned by a book or magazine publisher, a theatre, film or television production company, or radio or television station or network. Alternatively, work may be sold by the writer or a literary agent acting on the writer's behalf.