September: Career Planning

Back in July, I insanely thought we could discuss career planning, but I wisely shoved it to the side. September's here and I think we're all ready for it. I'm looking forward to hearing your tips and tricks to keep your writing career on track.

Okay, some of you are snickering. I can hear you. What career? I'm not even published yet.

So what? You're going to be published someday, so it's time to plan now.

The first thing we're discussing is your career map. You may have never delved into what you want to accomplish as a writer, but I'll bet if you do, the answers will come to you fairly quickly.

A career map is a basic list of what you are doing, or plan to do in the future, to make your dream of becoming a published writer a reality. For those of you who are published, your career map would consist of steps you're taking to publish more books and further your career.

Grab a pen and a notebook and think about the following questions for a few minutes. Write down your answers.

Daily: What do you do on a daily basis to further your writing? (Write X amount of pages/words, read writing related blogs, post on your own blog, network with other writers via the Internet, subscribe to a word a day e-mail service, etc...)

Monthly: What do you do on a monthly basis to further your writing? (Read trade magazines, review how much you've written the previous month and set new goals for the next month, attend writing group meetings, take an on-line class or read a book on writing craft, add new contacts to your social networking sites, read books in the genre you write in, query agents, study publishers, back-up your writing, etc...)

Annually: What do you do on an annual basis to further your writing? (Write a goal list for the year, review your progress and compare to the previous year, attend one or more conferences, research ways to market yourself, etc...)

Five Year Plan: Where would you like to be in five years? (Do you have small children at home? Be realistic. Maybe where you want to be in five years will be more appropriate in ten. Do you have a full time job you can't imagine giving up anytime soon? Take it into consideration.) The point of a five year plan isn't to set unrealistic goals or to make you wallow in frustration at your life. It's to look ahead and see a possible and desirable future for your writing.

Five years ago, my plan looked very different from the one I have now. Back then, I decided I couldn't write much the first two years, but I knew I could find the time and energy to read. I read everything I could during that time. I also belonged to a writer's group with twice a month meetings and writing assignments. I knew that would fit my life as well. Then, three years ago, my schedule changed as anticipated. I had several hours a week to devote to writing. The following year, I had even more time to write.

The plan I have now is not only realistic, but it's attainable. And I'm pretty excited about it. It fits my life and keeps me focused.

We might not have much control over when we get published, but we have complete control over the actions we take to help us get published.

Do you have a career map? If yes, what excites you about it? If no, what's keeping you from writing one?

Join me on Friday when we'll discuss studying our favorite author's careers to further our own.

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