Sure, writing may be the most lucrative career in real life, but in The Sims 4, your Sims can easily find themselves a place on the bestseller list when they take on the Writer career. Whether they decide to become prolific authors or hard-hitting journalists, they’ve got their work cut out.

Both the Author and Journalist career paths for the Writer career in The Sims 4 offer a variety of interesting bonuses and bring in a good number of Simoleons each day, but the branching paths focus on different skills and require advancement in each to advance through the career.

Writer Career Overview

One of the more creative careers available in the base game of The Sims 4, the Writer career track is for Sims most passionate about building their Writing skill.

These Sims are on track to spend hours at a time writing, leading to plenty of time alone at their desk working away on their next best-selling, money-making novel.

Sims earn royalties from their published works, sure, but for a more stable income until they're bestsellers themselves, consider the Writer career.

Available from phones or computers like any other job in The Sims 4, this career sees your Sim doing a variety of assorted Writing tasks as they get promoted through the ranks.

Become An Author Or Journalist

Once you've been promoted to Level Six of the Writer career in The Sims 4, you'll be allowed to choose a distinct career path.

• Authors keep their focus on writing novels - which can earn a nice side income from royalties.
  • To make their stories make sense, Authors will need to use their Logic skill to keep things cohesive.

• Journalists, on the other hand, pivot toward writing articles about other Sims - they make less money, but earn more relationship boosts.
  • Journalists need people skills, putting a focus on their Charisma skill in addition to Writing.

If you're looking specifically for Simoleons, the Journalism branch focuses more on social aspects of writing, but Authors get paid more in general.

Not only does it have a notably higher base pay, but with so many tasks related to writing books that can be sold for additional profit, you'll have two revenue streams at once.

Both Authors and Journalists will need to write for their daily tasks, but the process is a bit different between branches.

• Authors need to make steady progress with writing books each day.
  • There are fewer requirements for this - genre doesn't matter, as long as you're working on writing a novel every day.

• Journalists need to keep earning their bylines by writing reports for work.
  • In all, you'll need to interview Sims, write about them, and publish the article, which takes a bit longer.

Helpful Traits And Aspirations

Since you'll be using quite a lot of imagination and Inspiration as you work on your Writing skill in The Sims 4, the Creative trait can prove a massive help.

Sims with this trait are more likely to feel naturally Inspired throughout the day, leading to massive boosts to their Writing skill.

Not only that, but the ideal mood for going to work is Inspired, meaning Creative Sims have a leg up on going to work in the best mood for performance boosts!

Additionally, giving aspiring Writer the Loner trait can come in handy, as they'll be spending plenty of time alone writing to practice their skills and finish their daily tasks.

Sims with the Loner trait see their Social need decay slower, which can be helpful during long stretches of solitary work on the computer.

In terms of aspirations to consider, the Bestselling Author aspiration is a great choice for earning a bulk number of Satisfaction Points in return for all the writing you'll need to do.

These Sims have a passion for writing books and reaching certain Writing skill levels, with the ultimate goal of earning thousands of Simoleons in royalties.

However, the goal for completing the aspiration is the Poetic trait, which allows your Sim to write one of the most powerful items in the game - the Book of Life.

Giving the Book of Life to another Sim after their death can bring Sims back from the dead, making this one of the best aspiration rewards in The Sims 4.

Every Level Of The Writer Career: Pay, Hours, Promotion Requirements, And More

In the table below, we've kept track of the working days, hours, pay rates, and unlocks for each of the ten levels of the Writer career in The Sims 4.

The career path branches at the promotion to Level Six, where you'll be allowed to choose if you'd like to specialize in novels or articles.

General Writer Career (1-5)

Author Career Branch (6-10)

Journalist Career Branch (6-10)

Plan to spend time socializing in the Journalism career before writing articles - you can't write them without interviewing Sims first.

All Rewards And Items Unlocked In The Writer Career

Finally, we've kept tabs on all the furniture and CAS unlocks as your Sim progresses through the Writer career in The Sims 4.

Plenty of the items are decorative only, but they add a touch of elegance to any writer's office!

Every Writer Career Reward In The Sims 4

The majority of levels have a Simoleon bonus as well, providing a helpful way to accrue all the decorative or furniture items in the Writer career in The Sims 4.