Beginnings and Backstories
Want to create a writing career? Start with a plan for your life and business.
I never chose to be a writer. Like many of you, writing chose me. Showed up as a knowing before I was old enough to really know anything at all.
But I did choose to become a professional writer.
I chose to train and take classes, practice the craft, study markets, grow from feedback, survive rejection, and manage budgets and a business.
I chose to practice pitches, learn about structure, pacing, voice, POV, and tension. And I learned how to use that knowledge to write for corporate clients and editorial ones, write fiction and nonfiction, publish podcasts, articles, books, and reports, and make money doing it. I chose to put in the work and keep learning.
After 26 years in the business, I am still learning.
Probably why I love working and living as a writer so much. Why I think it’s a worthy goal. And one I believe you can achieve.
It is possible to make a career as a working writer.
But, if you want to make money from your words, you’ve got to know about a lot more than writing.
We’ve also got to be entrepreneurs and run our writing enterprise like a business.
Building the Business of Writing
Whether you are writing for the first time with the hope of publishing, running a side hustle, or building on a career, you’ll need a plan if you want to create a work structure that will last.
When I was starting out, after a career in journalism and later public relations, I created a Life-Business Plan that integrated, as the title implies, my business into my life. It’s nothing formal and yet very specific. And it’s been a working document and guide for me now all these years.
From the get-go, I wanted my life to support my work and my work to support my life in an integrated and grounded way.
Integrating Life and Work
So, I put all my ideas, goals, plans, and desires down on paper. Listed the projects I wanted to do. The way I wanted to spend my time both personally and professionally.
I needed to see how both my personal and professional life could work together. I knew if one aspect didn’t feel right, the other would fail too because writing requires time and dedication. It rarely operates as a 9-to-5.
Writing pulls from other things you are doing and at the same time you must engage in life and get out in the world to write well.
My writing business reflects my life values and the things that I like. It helps me process and understand the world and influences how I spend my time (reading) and usually, (not always) brings me joy, and satisfaction. It adds meaning to my life and that enlivens my work.
For me, it would work no other way.
Know What You Need
As much as I need to write, it wasn’t the only thing that drove me to become a freelance writer. I wanted a job with autonomy. Income is necessary too. I’ve got a kid and a house and animals and all the grown-up stuff to take care of.
I value freedom—the ability to work when I want. I value that more than money. Sometimes that means I’ve made less money. You only get paid when you work and publish after all. I’ve had many days where I’ve had to consider the trade-offs. Yet still, I’ve supported myself and been able to keep a schedule that worked for my family.
You will likely value different things, have different goals, needs, curiosities, dreams.
The point is to understand yours. What you want, what you value. To know what’s driving you before you decide to go pro, and then to be agile even after you’ve created your writing career so that you have a structure that will guide you over the long haul, and support the work you want to do as well as the work you can do.
Below is a list of questions I evaluated and wrote into my Life-Business Plan. You might want to consider these and others too as you launch your writing career.
No Wrong Answers
What materials, supplies, space do you need to start your writing business?
Where will you work? When?
Write down your ideal schedule. You probably won’t always be able to keep to it—I haven’t—but it’s a good mark and I stay pretty close to it.
What’s your motivation? Why do you want to be a professional writer, to make your living this way?
How does this work align with your values, lifestyle, schedule?
How will your writing help others? We tend to feel more satisfied when we are making positive contributions. And I do believe and know that writing changes the world, so what work will you do that adds this kind of awesome?
On your best day, what would you like your schedule to be? Include exercise, chores, fun, whatever. How will you integrate your writing business into your life and vice-versa?
How much do you need to make per month? How much do you want to make?
How soon will you make it? Even if you are publishing now, it can take months to get paid. Good to think about how you’ll pay your bills if the checks don’t come through.
How will you make that money? I’ve never had one answer to this question. It’s taken hustle and a range of writing-related assignments to pay the bills. I’ve done speaking, teaching, Web site content, book writing, corporate stuff, speeches, websites, marketing, user manuals ad copy, and about everything else. I expected that. Planned for it and don’t mind it.
Who will hire you or buy your work today? Who are your clients?
How will you find other clients? Whether you write fiction, nonfiction, or marketing content, you’ll need to know the answers to these questions. Which magazines pay? Who are the publishers and editors that are looking for work?
How will you reach your audience or publishers, editors, readers, managers?
What are you willing to do on the side to make a go at the writing? Often writing starts as a side hustle. I went all in. Full-time from the beginning. But I was prepared to have another side hustle if needed to support the writing. I made a list of places I could work: bookstores, stocking shelves at the grocery, and delivering early-morning papers if I needed the income. In the end, I made another form of writing my side hustle while I was working to break into magazines.
How will you structure your business? Will you incorporate, remain a sole proprietor, or become an LLC? How will you track your deductions and manage your tax estimates or taxes and Schedule C forms?
What licenses do you need? Some cities and counties require them. I have one.
How will you continue learning and training? Other jobs have employee trainings, we must find a way to rev up and recharge and keep growing too.
What are you willing to give up to write full-time? Fiction powerhouse Jacquelyn Mitchard talks about this on the next Simply, Write podcast and explains what she gives up to write. I rarely go out for coffee or lunch with friends during the day, that’s when I work. And, when I’m writing a book, I don’t go anywhere for a stretch. Consider what you might have to give up to do the job and decide if that’s OK.
What else should you consider? Add to this list. Personalize it. Identify your strengths and shortcomings and know how you’ll manage both.
These questions and your answers will help you get clear about what you want. I’m a strong believer that when we know that, we can set up a structure to support it.
You are now part of the creator economy, a writing entrepreneur. All of this is part of the creative entrepreneurial process.
Plus, you can always use a fancy pen and good paper to write out your plan, if you’re into that kind of thing. And who isn’t?
Get planning Writers, and I’ll check in next week.
Thanks for being here. I’m excited to have a place to talk writing with you all.
Now, let’s go and simply, write.
-p
