I’ve just now read through all the comments that my blog readers have left since my last post. Wow! I’m impressed by the detailed action plans some of you have put together. That’s great!
I had to laugh at Karla’s comment that it sounded like a good idea to have a Board of Directors meeting and a Shareholder’s meeting. It’s not just a good idea, it’s the law–at least if you run a corporation. I incorporated all my writing and teaching activities about a year ago. (I don’t recommend this until you are earning a decent amount of money, because there are expenses that must be paid to run a corporation, AND you have to do pesky paperwork such as keeping minutes on official meetings. And annual meetings for the Board of Directors and the Shareholders are required.)
Even though it’s a boring legal requirement, I’m glad I was forced to do it. Before the meeting, I took a few hours and wrote up a President’s Report for 2007, which listed all my accomplishments for the year, including one failure. (Failure is OK; it’s good to fail occasionally, because that shows you’re taking risks; it’s also good to fail quickly, which I did in one project in 2007.)
I also did an analysis of which tasks earned me money and which ones didn’t. That’s very helpful in making plans for next year. In doing the analysis, I learned that keeping track of time is something that should NOT be done on paper, it should be done by computer. It’s far easier to analyze the information if the computer does the hard work. For 2008, I am eliminating paper records of time-keeping and am using an online service that costs me $9 per month. I think that’s a bargain. They actually have a free version that manages only one project, but I have more projects, so I’m using the payware version.
I also had to wince in sympathy at Gerhi’s comments:
I’m in a bit of a bind. This year I have decided to quit my job and start a business with my wife. Maybe it is more, quit my job and help her to make her business make enough money so that we can have a decent income – so that I can spend time on my projects, expecially writing. It involves selling the house, quitting my job, moving accross country to be closer to family and support, AND building the business as a matter of priority.
Randy sez: That’s where I was about two years ago. I had recently been laid off from my irritating day job, and decided there was no good reason to stay in San Diego any longer. So we sold the house, moved halfway across the country, bought a new house, and ramped up my writing/teaching business. That pretty much shot all of 2006. So 2007 was a year of getting back in the swing of things, learning to live in the Pacific Northwest, and learning how to schedule my time when I have apparently all the time in the world, but still have to earn a living.
If there’s anything I learned in 2007, it’s this:
Successful Fiction Writing = Organizing + Creating + Marketing
There are people who will tell you to focus on one or the other of these to the exclusion of all else. That works for awhile, but eventually things get out of kilter. I believe the great trick of managing your writing career is to continuously improve in each of these areas.
I am consciously spending time in each of these areas every day. Today, three of the actions I took were:
1) Cleaning up ONE drawer in my desk that had gotten out of control.
2) Editing the three sample chapters of my novel.
3) Writing up a strategic plan for products I plan to create and market this year.
If you look at those, that’s one organizational action, one creational action, and one marketing action. Actually, I had several other actions on my task list, so these are representative of what I did for the day.
Continuous improvement is essential, because improvements tend to multiply. As a rough example, if you learn to type twice as fast AND you learn to write twice as well, your writing time will be four times as effective. If you then learn to market twice as well, you could in principle end up earning eight times as much as originally.
Quality, of course, is hard to quantify, but the basic point is clear: small improvements multiply. Small improvements can mean; learning new skills; buying new tools; getting better organized; or automating your processes. Anything that makes you a better writer is an improvement. I’ll talk more about this in my e-zine tomorrow, so stay tuned!
Hi Randy,
I have returned from vacation yesterday and I spent quite some time reading all the posts by you and Susan as well as all the comments and questions. It was great!
Two months ago, I was inspired to translate an English novel in Afrikaans and, thanks to the holidays, I have translated 216 of the 338 pages, which is 73 326 words.
It is very exciting and in the process, I learn a great deal about the craft. As I am back at the grindstone, my target is to translate at least 500 words every evening.
It is not so difficult but occasionally I must think really hard on how to translate a specific phrase and sometimes only one word forces me to do some research!
It’s great to visit the blogg again. It’s the only thing in my office that I have missed during the holidays.
Randy said: Anything that makes you a better writer is an improvement.
I say, anything that you do which is creative makes you a better writer, as well. We all know what we should be doing by now. But I’ve discovered when life gets in the way (like Christmas prep) and I’m working on designing and sewing quilts, it still exercises the part of the brain I use for creating stories.
I suppose the moral is not to waste anything. There is so much we can do to improve our writing life. We just have to do it!
If only I told a story as fast as I type now.
Wow! I love the whole “small improvements multiply” concept. This is a great way to keep motivated. All of the hard work is not only adding to my knowledge and experience. It’s multiplying.
Thanks Randy.
I think that sounds like a great plan. I love the creating side of things and could get lost in it for hours. What good will that do if I never send it out (market!) or if I can’t find it (organize!)?
I have done little things this way, but hadn’t really thought about making my goals specific to organizing and marketing. It makes sense, though, and will help my creativity flourish even more.
Disorganization and lack of success can be creativity killers.
What is the advantage of incorporating your business? It sounds like a lot of work and at least some expense, so what is the advantage to you?
Thanks Randy for your blog. Your last one, asking us to tell what we planned to do that day, got me motivated to choose something that would help clean up the clutter in my office as well as in the rest of the house. The job is far from done, but a lot of progress has been made. Some of this is because my husband also jumped in to help with this chore . . . and I didn’t even have to ask him.
We incorporated our business in 2006. We have a CPA that does a lot of the paperwork (sending me monthly “sign here” packets.)
I’m learning to not panic when my schedule isn’t full (read no income…) as I need this “down time” to prepare, catch up, plan, and work on new projects–like new books. We just moved one house up and are going to use our previous house for business. I spend a portion of each day on income tax (finite work), a portion on creativity–writing (ongoing work) and a portion on cleaning and organizing the business house.
Your blog is one of my highlights.
Small steps forward do count. I’m even happy with going forward on a vector. Sometimes I liken my unreliable creative side to getting a new llama down the trail when he doesn’t want to go. If he won’t go forward, we pull him to the side. If that doesn’t work, we go around and pull him in a circle so that he’s at least moving, and then usually once he’s facing forward the momentum will keep him going.
Now that I have a list of things to build my platform, and market as well as write, when the creativity grinds to a halt, I just ‘move to the side’ by picking up one of the other tasks. Stuff like platform-building and marketing use a different part of my brain. Then I get excited about the possibilities, and I find I can move forward on the original project again.
Successful Fiction Writing was very helpful to me today as I prepare to go to CWG the end of the month. I am really making strides to keep things in balance and organize what is important and what isn’t. I also have been putting my toe in deep waters as to what I want to do as a business with my writing in the coming year.
I usually live by a word that impresses me each year. This year is legacy, what do I really want to leave my family as I grow?
HELP! Thanks Randy for all the help you give to us writers.
Randy,
I don’t know what your take is on the critiquing the work of other writers in an online fashion. I mentioned that I have joined a critiquing website www.critters.org which is basically a web version of the writers getting together to look at each others work. I must say it is a good move because just reading how to critique and then doing it forces me to edit my own work that much better. I would highly recommend this site for two very good reasons: First it has writers from novices to published and it archives all of the critiques so you can see what actually catches the eyes of people. The only way it could get better is if it had seasoned editors. Secondly it is free! You must perform critiques in order to be allowed to post your own ms. Seems fair to me!
Dave.
Hi Randy,
I was on vacation for three weeks so I sat down and read all the posts by you and Susan as well as all the comments and questions. It was great!
To you and Susan, thank you very much for all the valuable information.