Tag: Writer Unboxed blog

Career Planning Tips for Aspiring Authors

~ The Regal Writer ~ Leave a comment
Photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels.com

I jumped into my fiction writing journey with hope in my heart and my fingers crossed. I didn’t have a clear idea where I wanted to go once I started writing though. But even if I did know, I didn’t have a map or a compass that told me how to get there. I simply jumped into the deep end of the pool and hoped something would come of it.

When I started writing in earnest, I didn’t know whether it was a new career path or a hobby to keep me entertained while I looked for work. It’s one thing to say “I’ve always wanted to be a writer.” It’s quite another to actually formulate a plan for getting there.

Some writers do plan their writing careers. Others, like me, slip into it gradually, more as an experiment rather than a conscious career choice.

Most professional writers will tell you that it’s a good idea to have a plan, something concrete to guide you along your writing journey. A plan helps you visualize your writing goals so you have a picture in your mind of what you want to accomplish. Without it, you might as well spin your wheels.

So that begs the question. Should aspiring authors have a career plan? If so, what does that plan include? How do you know what you want to accomplish, and how long you expect it to take? These are all questions you need to ask yourself before embarking on your writing journey.

Do you have a plan for your writing career? Have you mapped out what you want to accomplish and how to get there? Would you do anything differently?

If you think a career plan is right for you, here’s what you might include.

A vision of success. Take a few moments to visualize what you want your writing career to look like. What do you want to accomplish? What does success look like to you? What does it mean to be a successful author? Try to be as detailed as possible. You have to know what the end game looks like in order to get there.

Your goals. If your vision is the end game, your goals are the wheels to help you get there. Be specific. For example, don’t just say you’ll write every day. Instead, say that you’ll write 1000 words a day six days a week, which is more specific and more achievable. Focus on things you can control, such as your output and time spent on writing activities.

Your timeline. Some career experts suggest having a five-year plan, no matter what career you choose. Then working backward from your end goal (or vision) at the five-year mark, set goals at intermediate points, such as annual or every six months. Put goals in the order of how you want to achieve them. For example, completing a fiction writing course might occur earlier in your timeline than publishing a short story.Having a timeline can help you determine if you’re on track to meet those goals, or if you have to reset the timeline.

The road map. How do you plan to achieve your goals? What steps do you need to take to move forward? For example, do you need to brush up on your writing skills? Do you need to build a network of fellow writers? Do you need to find out how to craft a work of fiction?

Fantasy author Holly Lisle suggests finding a model author to follow. Read every one of their books, and study them for how their writing progressed over time. Learn all about their work methods. See if any of them will work for you. 

Find a support network. Writers might work alone, but they need the support of family, friends and colleagues too. Make sure that your spouse, kids, roommates are on board with your new career plan. Make sure they give you the space and time you need to do your writing.

Starting a writing practice isn’t always easy, especially over the long haul. Here are some additional tips for planning your writing career. .

* Pace yourself. Burnout is very real, writes Heather Webb at Writer Unboxed blog. Meeting deadlines, especially those enforced from outside yourself, like an agent, editor or client, can zap you of your energy. “When writing begins to feel like a chore, it’s time for a time out to regroup. Writing will come back. Your love of storytelling won’t go anywhere,” says Webb.

* Be flexible. Real life can get in the way of your writing. Webb advises writers to be flexible in all aspects of the writing business—your schedule, with story ideas and with your career path. Don’t be afraid to pivot when you need to. If one genre doesn’t seem to be working for you, switch to another.

* Define what success means to you. If you were a successful author today, what would it feel like? How would you behave? Dress? Treat others? Treat your work? Success won’t look or feel the same way to everyone. Define success on your terms.

* Don’t let your negative inner voice or ego become the loudest voice. Drown it out with your own positive energy. Similarly, avoid author envy. It’s tempting to compare yourself with other writers, especially those whose work you admire, but that serves no useful purpose. Focus on becoming the writer you are meant to be.

* Most important, be sure to write as often as possible. You learn most about the craft by actually sitting down and writing. Once you start, you won’t want to stop.

Having a career plan isn’t mandatory for success. But it can help you clarify your goals and map out a path for achieving what you want. It’s one more tool to add to your writer’s toolkit.

Creating Stories with Child-like Wonder and Delight

~ The Regal Writer ~ Leave a comment

Sing like you know the words, dance like no one’s watching, and love like it’s never going to hurt. — Unknown

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels.com

 Christmas always makes me feel like a kid again. It’s that time of year when I realize that I really am a kid at heart. I love the decorations, the music, the lights and especially the gift-giving.

It’s especially joyful when I watch children. I see their eyes grow wide with wonder and delight at each new experience, from sitting on Santa’s lap to seeing brightly wrapped presents under the tree. Everywhere they look, they see something fun and interesting to explore.

I call this “Christmas delight.”

Children experience the same delight through the things they create, whether it’s a drawing, a poem or a dance. They make things up as they go along, and they don’t worry about editorial guidelines and rules. They just do what they feel in their heart. They only know how to express themselves, to laugh, to have fun, to delight in their own creativity.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all experience this same wonder and delight with our writing?

A recent essay on Brevity’s Nonfiction blog got me thinking about our capacity as writers to delight in our own creativity. The author, L. Roger Owens, described his experience when he lost the joy of writing. Even as he struggled with writer’s block, he admired the unabashed joy his daughter expressed in her own creativity. She proudly read her stories out loud to a roomful of strangers. She spoke enthusiastically about plot points and character motivations. She delighted in her original turns of phrases. Things Owens wasn’t able to do with his own writing.

For Owens, repeated rejections and strict editorial guidelines squashed his creativity. A lack of interest in topics he was assigned to write about through his job killed his enthusiasm too.

Why are we able to experience this delight of creating as children, but lose it as adults?

Whatever we create as adults seems more open to scrutiny, not just our own, but that of editors, publishers and our peers. What we write seemed unique at first but now seems mundane and boring. Too many rejections and negative feedback weighs us down. We worry more about pleasing others than ourselves. All that negative input kills our enthusiasm, our joy.  

It may seem that the child-like wonder and delight for writing is lost forever. But it’s possible to reclaim it. Here’s how:

1. Pretend you are a child again. Do you remember how you felt when you finished writing a story? Did you take pride in your creation? View your writing as a child would. Children have no knowledge of editor’s rules or expert writing advice, so they are not worried about how people might react. They write for themselves, for the pure joy of creating. Perhaps we can learn from children to live in the moment and enjoy the process of creation.

2. Give yourself permission to fall in love with your work. It’s okay to appreciate turns of phrases, story ideas, plot lines, characters, and witty dialogue. So what that it may never be published, that it might land on the cutting room floor at your editor’s office. Even if you don’t use the material, keep it anyway. Create a file of writing that you review periodically to remind yourself that you are capable of writing enjoyable stories, even if they are never published.
 
3. Read your work out loud. It doesn’t have to be a large auditorium. Whether it’s an audience of one or ten, it doesn’t matter. Getting up to read your work takes courage and shows pride in your writing. When you read it out loud, even if it’s a first draft, you may find it isn’t nearly as bad as you think.

4. Don’t take your writing too seriously. Remember that writing is just one aspect of your life, not the only thing. “Writers are entertainers,” writes author Barbara O’Neal in Writer Unboxed blog. “We’re supposed to have fun. If you’re not, it’s probably time to find something else to do for a while.”

5. Allow yourself time to play. Take a break from writing and do something else, advises  O’Neal. Indulge in a favorite hobby, visit a museum, or go for a hike. Bring a small notebook with you and jot down any details you notice in your environment. As writers, we spend a lot of time closed off from the rest of the world. It’s important to get out as much as possible, engage with other people, commune with nature and the world at large. We need to give our brains a break from creating – and to give joy a chance to rise again.

6. Illustrate your story rather than write it. Put away your laptop or your notebook. Instead, take out a piece of paper and draw images to tell your story, writes Ben Soyka at the Writing Cooperative. Readers are more visual and enjoy having visual aids to go along with the stories they read, he explains. Besides, the illustration process forces you to develop new creative skills while you consider different ways to share your stories.

Losing the joy of writing is bound to happen at some point in your practice, especially when you put so much of yourself into it. Have faith that the child-like delight will return. And when it does, imagine how much joy you’ll bring to your readers.

Thank you for reading. Happy Holidays! Don’t forget to check out the weekly writing prompt in the sidebar.