Imagine winning not one, two or three Selah Awards, but five — in five different categories.

You’ve no doubt found a writing style that works well for you and an artistic genre that is comfortable. However, the familiar can get you stuck in a rut, resulting in missed opportunities to expand your repertoire, grow you influence and build your business.

This year as you’re writing, work to transition yourself as a writer from your current capacity to something more.  Take a look at these five different ‘genres’ of writing and consider why they can be smart ways for you to grow.

1. REPORTING

Many services need skilled writers that can competently report news and other important information.  Reporting requires you to build a network, contact and interview people, communicate accurately and as completely as possible, be concise and articulate and understand both the story and the message. Often you work on a quick timeline. Your ability to understand how to best leverage technology as well as your ability to deliver skills beyond just writing can make you more valuable as a reporter. As a reporter you may find you gain opportunities to go to events, review materials and have access that others don’t. People and companies need their stories told. As a reporter you can be the solution to their need.

2. SERMON WRITING

We’ve all heard of speech writers.  They are the people who get paid to write speeches that others present. Imagine how your words could be some of the most inspiring and memorable thoughts ever spoken and heard. Stanley Levison and Clarence Jones certainly got to experience that as they contributed to Martin Luther King Jr’s. I Have A Dreamspeech.

You may not have known but there are sermon writers too.  Many inspiring sermons are the result of collaboration by one or more people (sometimes a whole team) and the pastor or Christian teacher. These high profile people typically preach weekly or more frequently. They also write books, make appearances and appear in many other public presentations. There are also sermon writing services that provide a variety of resources on which pastors and teachers can draw as they develop sermons and teachings. Serving in this capacity allows you to tell stories, incorporate Bible passages and fuel in-depth study with multi-part sermons.

3. TECHNICAL WRITING

Things need to be explained clearly so that people can assemble items, follow processes, operate machinery, complete forms and much more.  If you’ve ever written a recipe, explained to someone how to play a game, or given directions to a destination you’ve practiced rudimentary technical writing skills.

You can’t really imagine how big of a business this is until you start to explore the website for the Society for Technical Communication. Industries the world over depend on technical writers. Since practically every product or service needs technical writing you can find opportunities based on what businesses are near you or you can identify the companies that produce the products and services you like most. Start with smaller companies that can benefit from technical writing but may not have initially budgeted for this.  This kind of writing can also lead into writing demonstration scripts for YouTube videos.

4. MARKETING

Quick quiz. How many of the following have you heard or read?

• For the best night’s sleep in the whole wide world visit mypillow.com
• Wayfare you’ve got just what I need.
• I’m lovin’ it.

Give yourself an extra point for each one that you can sing.

Marketing is big biz and it starts with amazing writing. It is Super Bowl commercials, viral social media, print, radio, packaging, signage and so much more. Forbes sites a Redcrow Marketing reportthat says many Americans experience between 4000 to 10,000 advertisements each day. OK, sure, only a few are memorable. Nonetheless, that is a lot of advertising that has to be written.

Like any kind of genre you need to do your homework and learn then practice. To get started find some local businesses, ministries and individuals that need to get their brand and message out more. Do some pro bono work and then display that work on your website. Go from there.

5. RESEARCH

In an era where so much is written it is shocking how little some know. Businesses, ministries, individual and more are making decisions and they need to base those decisions on solid information that thoughtfully considers their needs. Many of them need you to help them do the research and then put the conclusions into writing. Problems need to be solved but they can’t until you do the research.

You may not get five Selah Awards but you can grow your business by opening your mind to new genres.

Brad Bloom, Publisher of Faith & Fitness Magazine, Shout! Outdoor Lifestyle Magazine and map Travel Lifestyle Magazine. 

He is president of Lifestyle Media Group, a ministry that develops and distributes content to help people fuel their passion to connect daily living and Christian faith. Bloom draws a distinct difference between secular and his faith-centered brands, “Life should be lived way beyond training harder, living adventurously and going further. That’s all good but God is great. We can be equipped to be great when we get beyond all the doing and actively Be Life – the life of Christ to others.”