When Writing Have A Long Term Plan: Or At Least a One Year Plan.

This is nearing the end of the year for many writers, and we begin to think of the year ahead in many facets of our lives and yet, often, one facet that we as writers do not think about is the writing facet in our lives.  Not so much in terms of what we write, but of our writing business.

Below is a list of five pros and cons of having a long-term (one year at least) plan for your writing business.

Pro: You will have a better idea where your money is coming from.  In other words you can learn from your past in your business and understand what you can and can not do.  So, if your writing blog makes money versus your other writing, what should your focus be?

Con: You actually have to follow this plan.  In other words, you personally will need to think of your writing business and plan it out better than what we as writers want to do.  Planning is hard, there is no doubt about it, but without a plan you can find a lot of work becomes hard.

Pro: You will know what to focus on.  As with the last pro, the key thing is that you will know what works, and often what does not work for your business.  Since you will need to go back and look at stats and other information, you can tailor your business to better suit your needs.  The focus you give to say a blog which not only gets you visitors but get comments is a good thing where you can work harder and see improvement on.

Cons: shows you what does not work.  This is simple, while we as writers often love to focus on what is going well, and try to redo this “well” part.  We also try to avoid our past mistakes.  Yes, you can improve, but we still do not want to improve on the past.  This should be a part of the plan you have.  Going back online and improving is also a good thing, as people can still find your work online, no matter how hard you might wish to hide it.

Pro:  You will improve faster with a plan.  Like it or not if you have a plan you will see success.  It does not have to be detailed but if you follow your plan, your writing will improve, your business will improve and you will find writing is more fun.