Author

Create original pieces of written work - poetry, novels, short stories, biographies, web logs, plays or scripts for publication or performance.

Author

Roles and responsibilities

Writers are often self-employed or work under contract. If you are a business writer, you may be employed by government departments and private businesses. Technical writers are usually employed under contract to publishers.

If you are interested in writing, you should consider related occupations until you are able to establish yourself as a writer. Relevant areas include journalism, editing, teaching and advertising.

New technologies have increased the expectation that writers will have multimedia skills and will work on personal computers, submitting their work electronically. As a result, it is strongly advised that you have basic computer skills.

Writers:

choose themes or subjects for written work, conduct research into the subject, assemble background material and obtain other necessary data
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 theme, plot and characterisation, and there is correct referencing
set out the original manuscript so that it is clear and legible (that is, typed or word processed) and submit the work to a publisher
work with other specialists, such as scriptwriters, software developers, graphic designers and illustrators, to create multimedia works

Source: myFuture