Becoming a professional writer
“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”
~ Richard Bach
If you are a writer struggling with the dream of becoming a professional writer, don’t quit.
Persistence is the key, and hard work. Set some firm goals for today, this week, this month, this year and for the next five years. Write down these goals – then go for them. Don’t even think about quitting.
Word by word, chapter by chapter, story by story, poem by poem you will become a professional writer.
You may not reap fame or fortune – very few do. Most professional writers who diligently pursue their dreams make a reasonable living from their labours.
And while you are becoming a professional writer you will have the satisfaction that you are doing what you love – writing.
Good writing.
Writing Goals for 2009
I believe in setting goals for my writing. This is an important part of a writer’s life – and for almost every other pursuit in life.
Short term, regular Goals
On a regular basis I set daily, weekly, monthly and annual goals for my writing. These include:
- setting goals for the number of words written
- setting goals for the number of hours of writing
- setting goals for inservice training such as attending conferences, workshops, reading and other forms of self education.
- setting target dates for the submission of manuscripts.
- setting minimum number of posts on my blogs
Long term goals
Late last year I took some time to map out some longer term goals for my writing career. I set some goals for each year for the next five years. This may seem a long view of things but it helped me to clarify where I am heading with my writing. These goals included such things as the number of publications I would like to accomplish as well as some projected – and hopefully realistic – income goals over the next five years. All these goals are flexible and wil be adapted to suit changing circumstances.
My specific goals for 2009
It is always good to set some specific goals for the immediate future. Some of my goals for this year include:
- Completing my Master of Arts in Creative Writing – this is well under way with one year to go. I should be finished by this time next year.
- Writing a 40,000 word novel – this will be my thesis paper for my degree. The novel must be of a publishable standard. That’s my big challenge this year.
- Submissions to publishers of manuscripts written during my course last year. This includes several picture books, a short novel for young children, dozens of poems and several short stories.
- Continued posting of articles on my three blogs (see the links in the sidebar).
- Averaging 1000 words per day for the whole year (up from 700 per day achieved last year).
- Averaging 5 hours per day on my writing, a target I achieved last year. This might not seem much until you try – to average 5 hours per day I actually had to do many days over 10 hours to achieve the average. There will always be days when no writing is achieved due to illness, holidays, family responsibilities and so on.
I can see that it will be a busy year – again.
Good writing.
Setting goals for your writing
I receive email newsletters from a number of excellent writing centres, groups and web sites. These vary in quality from week to week or month to month. Most, however, contain something I can easily apply to my writing to improve it.
This week I received a very passionate email from a writer here in Australia. It was all about setting goals in order to give your writing direction and impetus. Strange that I should read this article immediately after setting a few writing goals for myself.
I know it’s not New Year yet, but there was a special need for me to revise my writing goals. Two days ago I finished attending my Writing Course for the year. I now have a break from lectures until next February. It was time to review what I’d achieved this year and to determine where I am heading over the next few weeks, months and years. In fact, I take a long term view with my writing, especially my blogging. I realised early on that steady income from writing, and blogging in particular, takes time to develop.
Consequently, I have reset some goals, extending over the next five years.
I also break this down into yearly, monthly, weekly and daily goals. To help me I keep fairly accurate records of what I actually achieve. This keeps me honest and accountable to myself. I no longer beat myself up if I get behind a little, but it sure motivates me to keep going.
Over this next few weeks, do a review of your writing (or blogging) achievements for this year. Then jot down a few goals for next year, and for the next five years. Then get back to the writing so you can achieve those goals.
Good writing.
Related articles:
Happy New Year
No Comments »1st January, 2008; Category: Goal setting
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Wow- 2008 already. I can hardly believe it. Where has the time gone?
Now is the time to set aside all those festivities and get on with setting some writing goals for the year.
I achieved a great deal last year, but didn’t quite reach some of my goals. So I’m going to stop writing this post now – and spend a little time setting some goals for this new year.
So – Happy New Year everyone -all the best with your writing goals for 2008.
Good writing.
Setting goals for your writing – where did the year go?
2007 Goals
Only two weeks left of this year. Where did that year go?
How are you doing with your goals for 2007? In fact, have you looked at your goals for this year recently? Did you actually write them down?
It is usually about now that people who are goal oriented sit down and start analyzing how they’ve travelled this year in the goal achieving department. With only a few days left it is still time to achieve a few minor goals, but as we near Christmas most people’s busy lives tend to take over. The demands of work, family, relaxation, shopping and many other things tends to dominate a little – or a lot if you let them.
Nothing magical
There is nothing magical about a new year. New Year’s day is just another day after all. On the other hand, a brand new year is a chance for all of us to have a new beginning, a new start with new projects, ideas and perhaps for some even a new job. It is a chance to evaluate our lives, looking back at the old year and assessing how we’ve been doing.
A personal reflection
In some of my goals I have been quite successful this year.
- I’ve managed to maintain the flow of posts reasonably regularly on my three blogs.
- I will fall just a little short of my target for the number of posts, but I am quite pleased with my output despite the many interruptions I have had.
- I will fall a little short of the number of hours of writing I set myself at the beginning of the year, but not by much. Again, I have achieved a lot in the light of the many enforced breaks in my writing time.
- Although I have written a large number of words this year, I am also a little short on the target I set myself.
- As for submitting to print publishers I must admit that my face is a very bright red. Lots of talk, great goals and good intentions but not much of a practical nature happening there. Time to get tough with myself and follow my own advice so freely dished out on this blog. It might also stop the family nagging me too.
How have you been going with your goal setting? Leave a comment in the comments section below.
Further reading:
- Reflections on my year of writing – from this time last year.
- My writing goals for 2007 – written on New Year’s Day
- Setting realistic goals for 2007