Start recording your writing life now

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard for writers at any stage of their career is to create a resume (or curriculum vitae) for your writing.

Why do I need a resume?

An up-to-date writing resume will come in handy when you’re asked to submit a bio, when you’re writing a cover letter for a submission, or when you’re applying for a residency, grant, job or some other super cool opportunity.

But, more importantly, having a record of your writing life and your writing accomplishments is self-affirming. The beginner writer might think they don’t have anything to add to such a resume, but once they start brainstorming items, it’s surprising how quickly that page fills up.

What do I include in a writing resume?

It’s surprising how many items even a beginning writer can include in a writing resume. Consider adding writing-related:

• workshops or readings you’ve attended, for example:
  Attended workshop, “Take Charge of Your Writing Career,” by Banff Poet Laureate Steven Ross Smith, March 8, 2020.
• conferences, arts festivals, or retreats you’ve attended;
• courses or education you’ve completed;
• consultations you’ve had with writers, editors or agents;
• awards or contests you’ve won or been long/short-listed for;
• grants you’ve received;
• publications (including Medium.com stories, especially those that have been curated and/or have impressive stats);
• your memberships in social or critique-focused writing groups;
• your memberships in associations/organizations/guilds;
• volunteer work; and,
• paid employment/freelance work.

Those of us who have professional social media profiles can include any impressive statistics on our number of followers or subscribers, Patreon supporters, Medium followers, enewsletter subscribers, website traffic stats, and more.

Testimonials from readers (perhaps copied from GoodReads or Amazon), freelance clients, publishers and more can also impress.

Use Your Resume as a Strategic Plan

The desire to fill out that resume can help us identify opportunities to get more involved with the writing world, and inspire us to set goals we want to achieve.

Even someone at the very beginning of their writing career can flesh out that resume by volunteering for a writing/literacy-related organization or event, booking a consultation with a local established writer, attending readings or events, taking a course, starting or joining a group of writers for critique or support, or buying membership in a professional writing organization (such as Sisters in Crime for mystery writers, or your local state/region’s organization).

And, of course, to fill in those award, contest, publication and paid work sections, we need to keep writing and sending out our work.

Have I missed anything?

What else could a writer add to their resume? Have you been asked yet to submit a writing resume?

(With huge thanks to poet Steven Ross Smith for his workshop and brilliant suggestion that writers maintain a writing resume.)

(Published on Medium.com March 10, 2020.)