Today we’d like to introduce you to Beth Ward.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Writing has always been the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do with my life.
When I was a kid, I read everything I could get my hands on — books, magazines, cereal boxes, dictionaries. Reading that way is really what taught me how sentences should sound, what they should feel like. I remember writing in little notebooks in elementary school, and winning honorable mention in a short contest called “Reflections,” haha. That was a big deal to eight-year-old me.
I founded a literary magazine in high school and worked as its poetry editor, but there was a big gap between that and turning myself into someone that can call themselves a professional writer. I didn’t go to college right out of high school. I moved to Florida for a bit and worked as a grant writer for a non-profit for a few years.
When I came back home to Atlanta in 2009, I really threw myself into writing. I blogged and began reaching out to hyperlocal publications with pitches for stories. I submitted my work everywhere, just waiting to see if anything would stick, and it turns out that several of those stories did.
I began building my portfolio of work pretty quickly after that. I also decided to finally go to college, where I submitted and published work in the school’s literary magazine and worked as a reporter for the paper. I started seeking out people who were doing the work that I wanted to do — local writers and editors and journalists. I’d cold-email them, attend writer’s conferences and workshops — really, just anything I could do to put myself in proximity to the life I’d dreamed of.
Around the same time, I had also just gotten a well-paying, but soul-sucking job, at a medical billing company. One of the contacts I’d made during that cold-emailing period contacted me and asked me if I’d be interested in coming in for an interview for an editorial internship at the digital health magazine she worked at, and I decided why not? I ended up getting the internship, and had to choose between the financial security of a mind-numbing job, and making really meager minimum wage at a place that could bring me closer to the writing life I wanted for myself.
I took the internship without a second thought, and still consider that one of the bravest things I’ve done in my career.
I stayed at that health magazine as an intern, and then as an associate editor for a 2-3 years, before moving on to another company as a web editor for a couple more years. But there was never a time that I wasn’t also pitching stories to magazines, writing essays, creating and submitting work, listening to interviews with writers, connecting with other writers, and reading — always reading.
I made another brave move when I opted to leave my full-time position as a web editor to go freelance and work for myself. It was terrifying, and hard, and also wonderful, because I got to write for some incredible publications, and meet amazing people, and tell stories I was really proud of.
Eventually, the publisher and executive editor of ARTS ATL both saw one of those stories and contacted me about coming on board as the books and film section editor of the organization. I didn’t hesitate in saying yes.
And honestly, that’s how I got from where I started to where I am. Saying yes. Being brave when I was really, really scared. Listening to that tiny little voice inside me that said “keep going,” “keep writing,” when everyone else was trying to convince me that there was no way to turn writing into a career.
I feel so insanely grateful that the girl that read cereal boxes and dictionaries and made her own magazines out of construction paper now gets to call herself a professional writer. It’s a hard job, but it’s a dream.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Dedicating yourself to a creative life and a creative career is rarely a smooth journey. There’s a lot of discouragement from well-meaning people who would rather see you doing something more stable and traditional. So there was a lot of my having to tune that out and listen to myself and trust that I knew what I was meant to be doing.
A creative career is also not always immediately lucrative, and the industry is incredibly unstable right now, and that can be scary — trying to make sure you can support yourself doing this work you love. But you figure out the money part of things as you go. Sometimes that means taking side work, sometimes it means taking corporate content-writing jobs while also penning a narrative non-fiction essay. Sometimes it means skipping lattes and eating leftovers.
Working as a freelance writer can also be a pretty isolating thing because real writing is solitary work. And that was hard for me. So I had to make it a point to seek out a community for myself — other writers and creatives who had non-traditional jobs and schedules that understood what a life like this is like.
You also deal with a lot of rejection as a writer — spending hours, days, weeks on the perfect pitch only to have an editor or a publication tell you no. I developed a thick skin pretty quickly, though, and I think that’s helped me survive all the ups and downs of the work.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
So my official title is Books and Film/TV editor for ARTSATL.org. ARTS ATL is a non-profit that seeks to provide independent, high-quality, well-rounded, diverse coverage of the Atlanta arts and culture scene. We like to think of ourselves as guides for people in Atlanta that are looking to engage with our booming, bustling creative community. It’s also really important for us to tell new stories, stories about up-and-comers, stories people may not be able to find elsewhere.
As the editor of the Books and Film sections of the site, I write and oversee coverage on the film and TV industry in Atlanta, as well as the city’s literary scene. In addition to general editorial duties (commissioning and editing stories, writing, managing an editorial calendar for my sections), it’s also really important to me that within my sections, I’m constantly elevating diverse voices and diverse stories.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t know if I’d call it luck as much as I like to think of it as serendipity, or the universe kind of conspiring in my favor — but it’s definitely had a hand in my life and career.
There are some things I deeply, deeply wanted that I didn’t get. And there were things that I didn’t ask for that somehow found their way to me.
I think the older I get, the more value and gratitude I’m finding in and for both.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ARTSATL.org
- Email: beth@artsatl.org
- Instagram: BethWardWriting
- Twitter: bethwardwriting
- Other: www.bethwardwriting.com
Image Credit:
ARTS ATL staff photo courtest of artsatl.org
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