Hello! My internet name is Word Technician, but my pen name is R. J. Pauly. It’s a pleasure to meet you!
I wanted to use this page to describe some of my qualifications and experience. I hold a Bachelor of Arts from Cumberland University: I double majored in English and Creative Writing, since I wanted the flexibility of an English degree and the artistic bent of Creative Writing. Turns out, both majors work brilliantly with each other.
Before college, while I was still in high school, I was an avid reader and writer. I still am, in fact! I self-published a science fiction novel called R. I. P. when I was 17; unfortunately, I decided several years later, after struggling with marketing and selling the book, that I would take it down (you can still see it listed on Amazon) and rewrite it with the intention to publish it traditionally – through a major publisher. That was a few years ago, and since, I’ve written the majority of a memoir. Which novel will come out first? Who knows!
While in college, I worked on two different journals: The Pioneer Pen and Novus. The Pioneer Pen was my first experience creating a journal; I read through the slush pile, worked with a team to decide what we kept and what we, sadly, had to reject, and then I helped design and send it off to print. This was truly a labor of love, as much of the work fell to myself and one other person, as the rest of the team struggled with other deadlines. With Novus, I had more help. I created a method to keep track of the many submissions – hundreds more than what The Pioneer Pen received – which made our decision-making process considerably easier. When it reached publication, it was far more polished and beautiful. Both of these journal experiences introduced me to the complex world of publication, and I fell deeply in love with it. In addition to my day job, I currently volunteer with a journal focused on conflict and veterans, called the Consequence Forum, helping with marketing and research.
Also during college, I held several editorial internships; one with a small company outside of CU where I worked remotely and edited and wrote for a website, and the other with CU working in the Writing Center. The remote role involved managing my own time to find and correct typos in content, then rewrite content (if necessary) and publish the new pieces. Working in the Writing Center was a different story; I assisted walk-in students with their essays or creative pieces, looking for basic grammatical issues and then reading for comprehension and cohesiveness. Both of these work experiences gave me skills in time management, attention to detail, copyediting, and developmental editing.
Finally, outside of college, I landed a contract with the State in which I live, writing resolutions and proclamations for the General Assembly. In this position, I learned how to write legal documents, working with a team to write, edit, and send out hundreds (if not thousands) of proclamations and resolutions over about four months. It was one of the best experiences of my writing career and taught me so many important lessons about working with a team and writing copy for a massive “company.”
Sadly, the career of a writer often does not involve writing. In addition to my writing experience, I’ve held mostly customer-service jobs and I currently earn a living as a manager at a coffee shop. This isn’t to say I don’t enjoy my work – I actually love slinging coffee and working with my team – but it is definitely not writing-focused. I believe this is true for most writers; the people at the Consequence Forum also work on the journal as volunteers. For most, writing and creating is a labor of love. This is why I try to offer as much as I can for as low a price as possible; I want writers to succeed and accomplish great things, and it’s hard to do that when the help you need is too expensive to access.
Please feel free to follow me on Instagram or Linkedin and stay up-to-date on what I’m doing! You can also follow me via this website and receive email updates when I publish something new.
Word Technician 