Writing For a Living: A Five Step Plan

It can be said that everyone has a novel waiting inside them. The reality is that some people want it that way. They are happy simply using their imagination to think of what if? They would not be called “career writers.” In fact some would even have a career that gives them more passion than writing.

There are others who will plan to write and maybe write, but never get around to publishing this writing. Then there are the writers who are, well writers, they are writing for life. Seems like a sort of jail sentence, but really if you want to be writing for life, here is a five step plan. Not easy as it looks but a plan none the less.

1) If this is something you want to do have a plan: This is simple, write your goals and your dreams and then set a date. Next part of this is write who you will tell to hold you accountable. It does not help if you write a plan, and then refuse to stick with it. Having a written plan with dates and numbers and another person to hold you to it is a must.

2) Set specific office times: The ones where you can tell people that I am writing and working. Yes use the term working. Most who do not care to believe you are in fact working will try to get you to do something else. The best way to keep writing is to ignore these people. Not easy but be firm, you have something you want to do.

3) Do you really want to put in the effort it will take to write?: Ask yourself this. All writing takes effort, you can be a single mom (or dad!) with commitments, but if you really love to write, the effort will be lack of sleep or a bit more on that already full plate. if you are not willing to love what you do and put the effort required to get a writing life going, you will not find success.

4) Love what you do no matter how hard it may seem to be: writing for life means that you might have times when what you need to write is not something you might want to write, but often you can find that there is a lot of writing fun. By this it means that your passion might be to write a book, but you are writing on blogs instead, if your blog makes money right now it will help you in the long run to write that book you are so passionate about.

5) Do not simply plan one thing, plan it all: Last but not least plan everything, from writing times to support people, to what you will write once something is completed. Of course, writing for life also means a sort of housework: things which need to be done each day, but these are something all writers do when writing for a living. If it helps them see their goals, and that they can become a writer of their dreams, this will be a great motivator. Having a short term plan is great but also having a long term plan will help you see the “big picture” while writing.

Again these steps may seem simple, but they are not as easy as they look. To your success.