Balancing Creative Writing, Business and Ghost Writing With Jessie Kwak

Balancing writing fiction and nonfiction, can you do it? What about writing across genres? Should you pick one genre or take on multiple genres for your books?

A couple of years ago, I worked with a marketing executive for Become a Writer Today, and he asked me what I liked to write.

I explained that I wrote a series of books about the craft of writing, a couple of books about creativity, and some short stories back in the day.

I'd also recently written a book called I Can't Believe I'm a Dad.

I asked him which of these projects he could help me promote. He said, "the writing books" because they connected to my business.

When I asked about I Can't Believe I'm a Dad, a passion project I wrote that I really wanted people to read, he said, "Bryan, you need to stay in your lane. You need to pick one genre and stick to it."

What he said struck a chord with me. At first, I wondered if he was right.

But here's the thing about writing and creative work — while it's OK to write something that pays the bills, sometimes you need to write something because it's a story you want to tell or a message you want to get out into the world.

So if you're writing something outside of your genre or niche, don't necessarily worry about sales or the result. Write it because you love it and because you enjoy the process.

The divergence between creative and nonfiction work is a theme for this week's podcast episode. I recently caught up with Jessie Kwak. She's a science fiction author. She also writes supernatural thrillers and is a ghostwriter and former copywriter.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How copywriting helped Jessie get a break in professional writing
• Her career as a ghostwriter
• Why Jessie chose to write fiction and nonfiction
• How she balances two completely different types of writing
• What her typical daily writing routine looks like
• The challenges that freelance writers face when they go out on their own for the first time

Resources:

Website: http://www.jessiekwak.com/

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