Living the Writer's Life:
Donna Kaluzniak
By Mindy McHorse

Donna Kaluzniak’s journey to the writer’s life is happy proof that you can make any niche your focus as a writer. Even as life’s twists and turns brought her a 36-year career outside of the writing world, her longtime love of writing surfaced as retirement neared. Read on to discover how Donna established herself in a unique niche complete with fear-free, well-paid writing jobs.

Writing is your second career. What were you doing before?

I always wanted to be a writer, but I ended up working in the water industry as a water utility director. I was in that for 36 years and I enjoyed it greatly. But I was working very long hours, especially once I became a director.

When did paid writing enter the picture?

I started writing toward the end of that career — little part-time projects through the job boards when I could. It didn’t pay very well, but it gave me some experience. I found it fun. Most of the time it wasn’t about water. I wrote quite a few web articles for colon cancer resources. I started very slowly, not really making any money. I didn’t officially start my business until after I retired, which was in 2015. So now I’ve kind of combined the two things, my love for water and my love for writing, and now I’m a water writer, basically.

How did you navigate toward writing for the water industry?

When I first started in AWAI back in 2004, I didn’t know what kind of writing I wanted to do. I took all the basic copywriting courses and won a trip to the Chicago B2B intensive, and that’s where I decided I wanted to be a B2B writer. Once I was retired, I officially wanted to be a writer for the water industry. I eventually named my business H2O Writing and started off just writing for a local engineer and worked for a couple of different agencies writing case studies, white papers, and articles.

I helped write a survey with a professional survey company, and also I helped to write the exposition of what the survey found for cybersecurity for water utilities. I’ve really enjoyed the transition. I’m still just part time now for an agency as well as a local engineer and a couple other global waterworks. I want to have time to do things with the husband. So I tell any clients up front that I’m not looking to be your full-time writer.

Sounds like you don’t have the fear that they’ll turn you away for wanting part time.

Part of it’s because I’m not reliant on that income. I’m blessed to have a pension and savings and Social Security and all that stuff, so I’m not trying to pay all my bills with my writing. That takes a lot of the pressure off.

Did being in community with other writers play a role in becoming a paid writer?

Definitely. Circle of Success has been a big help, because I really use it. For instance, my client said, “Hey, can you write an explainer video script?” And I told her, “I haven’t written one before, but I’m sure I can.” So I logged in to my Circle of Success and there was some information about how to write a video script. I wrote it and it turned out really well.

How has writing in retirement affected your lifestyle?

Since I use that money for fun money, I used it to go on a cruise with my sister. I use it mostly for enjoyable stuff with family or friends or sometimes just for me.

Is there anything you would change, if you look back at your writing career now?

I would tell myself that it isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I would tell myself to just go for it. I’d also say start earlier instead of waiting as long, but I had to do my career thing too, and I enjoyed that. So I don’t know if I could beat myself up too much for that.

Right; don’t overthink it. Last question: If you had somebody come to you who was in a long-term career that they really enjoyed but wanted to transition to writing for their retirement years, what advice would you give them?

Start if you can with some small projects, like emails. Connect with Barefoot Writer and AWAI members, because then you have so much help available to you. Anything you guys put out is really great. I’d also encourage Circle of Success, because you have all the resources that way. And if you can’t afford the outlay, then do some of the training books and just get ideas of how to do it. Start as early as you can, and that way you’ll be building on your experience.

Donna's Living The Writer's Life story was originally published in Barefoot Writer. To learn more about how you can start living your dream writer's life too, click here.

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