The Artist’s Resume: Just as Annoying as Other Resumes

Creative writing is hard. You’re developing a whole world, populated with engaging, fully developed characters and maybe trying to weave together an exciting narrative. But you know what’s worse?

Resumes.

Last night I spent at least an hour crafting an artist’s resume, which is different than the usual “hey, please give me a job with health benefits” resume. It highlights experience and work produced, such as short stories published or editorial work. All good stuff but, as with all resumes, there’s a lot of thought required as to proper formatting. Where should things be listed? How much detail? What if one item in a list doesn’t exactly match the others? Dear lord, what about the margins?!

Fortunately, I live with another writer who showed me his resume as an example (and then answered my questions very patiently when I asked “But what about this? And this?!”). I also found a few websites that offered great suggestions for formatting and information to included.

Even though working on your writer’s resume can be tedious and frustrating, it is good to put one together now as opposed to five minutes before a deadline. (Not that I’d ever do that. *Cough*)

Any resume tips you’d like to share?