In October 2010, I wrote my first blogpost. It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, but eerily enough it was.
My first post was basically me rambling on about my childhood and how I learned to ride the motorbike at the tender age of seven. You can read the first two stories here. 🙂
You might be wondering why I’m going on and on about ‘the early days’ of blogging and life.
Well, it’s because today I wanted to share with you lessons learned as a budding author entrepreneur and I also wanted to let you know about a slight shift coming soon to this website as well as to createastoryyoulove.com.
If you read that old blogpost above on my first attempt at learning to ride the motorbike(and failing multiple times), then you have a good idea of how wobbly it feels to make this shift.
At this moment, I feel like I’m back on that motorbike again, trying desperately to keep from skinning my knees. I feel like my legs are too short and my arms aren’t strong enough to do this, but something inside me says “It’s your turn.”
If you feel like it’s your turn too, if so, then I hope some part of my lessons learned encourages you…
Lessons Learned since I started over 6 years ago…
There have been so many great things I’ve learned in this author journey since I began, writing on a simple blogger.com site years ago.
Here’s some lessons learned that are top of mind…
1.Write what you love. This is true whether you’re writing a blogpost, or nonfiction or fiction book. You need to continue to write what inspires you. If you don’t, you’ll soon tire of the topic and that lack of passion will be reflected in whatever you’re writing. So stay true to what inspires you !
2.Really understand long-term goals for your author business when deciding to add or subtract some part of it. For example, if you want to start a podcast, really count the cost as far as the extra time, extra commitment and what you’ll need to let go of. I’ve enjoyed my podcast and all the wonderful authors I’ve had the privilege to chat with, but I had to sacrifice other projects to make the time necessary to do it. So I encourage you to get clarity and write down your long-term vision and goals for your author business… you’ll be so glad you did!
3.Be willing to shift and refocus to reach your vision. This is the place I feel like I’m at right now. My true vision is to write these fiction stories that have been perculating for a long time – contemporary sweet romance; fairytale romance; historical western romance; dystopian YA trilogy; a YA fiction series based on stories from my growing up years, etc. – as you can see by the long list, I have a lot of books yet to write 🙂
This brings me to the shift I’ve decided to make as an author entrepreneur…
Over the years, as I’ve been learning from other successful writers and indie authors, I’ve discovered that there’s one key theme that seems to emerge. That theme is “Focus.” More specifically, it is focusing on that one thing that you are the most passionate about.
I realized that somewhere along the way instead of focusing on that One thing I truly loved, I was focusing on many different things and losing that focus.
The end result? A ton of distraction, and time and focus taken away from what I love most… writing stories:)
This is the reason I’ve chosen to make a shift as an author entrepreneur.
As much as I’ve completely loved meeting these wonderful successful authors and interviewing them, I’ve realized it’s time for me to put the podcast on pause for awhile. For how long? I’m not sure. All I know is that I need to make more white space available so I can dedicate it to write. There are still two interviews coming up… but after the end of March there will be a pause in the podcast interviews.
I’ll be focussing on what I really love… writing fiction 🙂
Because of this decision, I’ll be writing on this blog once a month or so about stories I’m working on or about research I’m doing. This also means that I’ll be switching all nonfiction topics – on writing, self-publishing and book marketing – over to my nonfiction website createastoryyoulove.com.
This is a much needed shift I’ve needed to make, to help me become more focussed on my long-term vision and passion as a author entrepreneur.
I’ve learned that sometimes the dream of doing something we love can get sabotaged when we lose our focus. I listened to a podcast interview from a successful indie author not long ago, where she asked writers who were listening “how badly do you want it?” These words have really stuck with me.
I had to ask myself the tough question: How badly do you want to make a living as a writer? What are you willing to give up to make that happen?
Too many times we let distractions get in our way. I’ll be the first to raise my hand… because I’ve let distractions stop me from writing way too often.
I believe that anything that doesn’t matter to the business side of writing is a distraction. Yes, you need to spend time with your family and take care of their needs, but make this business your priority if you want to make a living with your writing.
Here’s what I’ll be focussed on this year. Maybe one or two of these tips will help you too…
Your goal should be that each time you publish a book, you see a rise in income. Rinse, repeat.
2.Write what your readers love. This really is writing with focus. Here’s the thing: if you aren’t writing the kinds of books your target audience wants to read, you will most likely not sell as well as you would have it you had focussed more on books that they love. This is why finding your target audience is so important. The real key is to find an area you’re already interested in writing and them combining it with something your audience wants. Discover what character tropes and plot tropes are popular in your genre, and then write your unique story from there. It will be a fresh new story, with tropes they love!
3.Use Your Time Wisely. So many distractions pop up everyday. Which means every single day you will have a reason not to write(of course take a day off each week to rejuvenate… nothing wrong with that). But if we haven’t written our next books in months(much like what’s happened with me), then we need to rethink how serious we are about writing and making a living as a writer. Writing needs to be like any other job… even though it’s a job you love. Writing needs to be treated with the same dedication that you would treat a job outside the home. There are no shortcuts. You need to focus on what needs to be done and just do it.
So that’s where I’m at now. I’ve turned a corner and am ramping up the writing. I hope you are inspired in some small way to rethink your writing goals for the year and to ask yourself what you really, really want. Knowing that will give you clarity to make the sacrifices you need to, so that you can accomplish your writing dreams. 🙂
What are your goals for your writing? Have distractions got in your way too? Please do share you thoughts in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you !
