Creative & Media
Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers
Create original written works, such as scripts, essays, prose, poetry or song lyrics, for publication or performance.
Median salary
$72,270
Typical range
$41k – $134k
Job outlook
+4% (faster than average)
AI exposure
Plan a path to Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers
Education
Typical entry: Bachelor's degree
Plan my path to this →Typical progression
Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers Intern
Internship
$36,000
~4 mos to advance
Junior Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers
Entry / Junior
$41,080
~2 yrs to advance
Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers
Established
$72,270
~3 yrs to advance
Senior Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers
Senior
$102,975
Internships are a common on-ramp here — they speed up landing that first role and improve your odds, which is why the Safe and High-ceiling plans build one in.
Key skills
A typical day
- •Write fiction or nonfiction prose, such as short stories, novels, biographies, articles, descriptive or critical analyses, and essays.
- •Develop factors such as themes, plots, characterizations, psychological analyses, historical environments, action, and dialogue to create material.
- •Revise written material to meet personal standards and to satisfy needs of clients, publishers, directors, or producers.
- •Choose subject matter and suitable form to express personal feelings and experiences or ideas, or to narrate stories or events.
- •Prepare works in appropriate format for publication, and send them to publishers or producers.
Fields of study
Any field
Top colleges for Creative & Media
Explore all- University of Southern California12% admit · $86,000 grad pay
- New York University12% admit · $84,000 grad pay
- Northwestern University7% admit · $95,000 grad pay
- University of Chicago5% admit · $91,000 grad pay
Reputation-based selection; stats shown are outcome data per school.