Embrace These 4 Key Roles for a Flourishing Writing Life
Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach · Jul 27, 2021 · 12:25
Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach · Jul 27, 2021 · 12:25
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I was an English major with a creative writing emphasis. When I looked to my future, I saw myself writing.
Over the years I managed to build a writing career, but as an English major, I wasn’t prepared for the business aspects of writing.
Invoices, receipts, taxes? That was all foreign to me. Sharing my writing through speaking and social media? That’s not what I imagined when I launched my writing life.
I thought I’d be…writing.
But I had to understand and embrace the four key roles that lead to a flourishing writing career.
https://youtu.be/A2_iAAQm1KkThis is how I think of them:
✅ Decider
✅ Delegator
✅ Doer
✅ Declarer
These four roles in a corporate setting might be something like:
➤ CEO
The Decider is like the CEO, the Chief Executive Officer. That’s the top dog, the visionary, the decision-maker.
➤ COO
The Delegator could be the COO, the Chief Operations Officer, the person who figures out how to run the business at a practical level.
➤ CWO
The Doer could be the CWO, the Chief Writing Officer. This role, the CWO, doesn’t exist in the business world, but we’re inventing and elevating it for this discussion because it’s the reason our business exists. Like me, you launched this whole thing so you could write.
➤ CMO
The Declarer is like the CMO, the Chief Marketing Officer: the person who ensures the message gets out.
At any given moment, a flourishing writer may be completing a task that falls under any one of these areas. Some of the tasks and roles don’t seem like the work of a writer, but they all support that core function.
When all four areas are addressed, a writer will start to build a profession, a career, and a sustainable writing life.
And it starts with the Decider.
THE DECIDER, THE CEOThe DECIDER—the boss, the CEO—is the person making high-level decisions about your writing career.
You fill this role.
You decide your author brand, your audience, your career path.
As the Decider, you determine a trajectory that aligns with your goals and values.
When those decisions are grappled with and made, you get to step into a second, practical role—that Delegator, the COO.
THE DELEGATOR, THE COOThe DELEGATOR-you, this COO, is the administrator, the project manager—the person who figures out who will be responsible for a task or activity.
When you’re the Delegator, you take those decisions and figure out the best way to pull them off.
If you decide, as the CEO, you need to learn, then the COO or this Delegator-you will research books, courses, and conferences and figure out which ones are best.
The Delegator looks into social media solutions and determines whether to hire someone to map out a marketing campaign or a designer to create images. Or the Delegator might delegate all this work to herself and take a DIY approach. In this instance, you might set up Canva to create images for all your social media feeds and Stories.
As Delegator, you set up calendars with deadlines. You determine practical matters, like apps to use, editors to hire, and ideal systems to set up, so the work gets done effectively and efficiently.
You’re in this role when you’re researching laptops and asking other writers if they use Scrivener. If you set up a project management system in Trello, ClickUp, or Notion, you’re in this operational mode.
And as Delegator, you tackle every English major’s nightmare: how to create invoices, save receipts, and report taxes.
This operations role that pulls off the decisions, usually delegating activities, is a practical, supportive aspect of our writing life and career. It’s devoted to setting the writer—the Doer—up for success.
THE DOER, THE CWOThe DOER is the CWO. As I said, the Chief Writing Officer doesn’t really exist in a business, but for the sake of this discussion, we’re coining this term. After all, it’s why all the other roles exist: so the writing gets done.
The Doer-you? This is what you thought you signed up for all those years ago. It’s why I majored in English. I wanted to write.
It’s why you’re reading this article by a writing coach, I’ll bet. You’ve got ideas to share and stories to tell.
The Doer commits to the creative work that you love most.
The Doer is the Writer.
When you’re the Doer, you research topics, outline projects, develop the message, and craft the story.
In fact, not to complicate this further, but the CWO, as chief writing officer, has tasks that you could almost break down into additional areas of responsibility, additional roles.
Because at any given moment, the Doer, the writer, the CWO, will:
The creative Doer wrangles words onto the page or the screen and completes the project.
You’ll probably feel deep satisfaction when you’re operating in this role because that’s the core work. That’s why this business you’re in, exists.
Once a project is complete, the work feels finished. The Doer thinks they’re done.
But how will people read what you’ve written unless you declare that it’s ready to be read?
How can they find it unless you point to where it lives online or in print?
THE DECLARER, THE CMOTha
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