A Writer's Business Plan

You can write various ideas all at the same time with a little organization. A professional writer usually dabbles in all types of writing. Freelance writers especially need to be very versatile. If you structure your work with a business plan it will not only better promote your business of writing, but it will focus your efforts in many avenues.

My business plan started with a simple writing plan. There were two parts to it. I wanted to learn the business of writing, while being marketable at the same time. This became my basic mission statement. The values followed, which included continued learning, dedication, and quality final drafts. You may be farther along than I was. Your idea may be beyond the initial learning stages, but you will want to expand on whatever phase you are at with your writing. A business plan will help you outline your thoughts like you would a novel-give you some methods to track the madness-but most of all it will give you a starting points. Getting back to the basics and/or using your own guide to switch projects will get you through writer's block.

Tailor your business plan according to you. Don't make its rules hard and fast. But plan out the various parts to maintaining consistent writing on varying projects.

Determine your projects

What projects do you want to work on? This may not be the year of the novel, given the many other project ideas vying for your attention. Or maybe you can fit it in on the weekends, or vice versa. Do you want to mainly focus on works of fiction, creative marketing, or a myriad of other writing projects? Pick your battles so your mind is prepared to go to work when it is time. Break up projects into phases, beginning with initial ideas for stories, etc. Then organize files to build the work through each phase.

Plan out your time

How much time will you need for each project per week, month, or year. Plan out the time needed for various projects. Make your assignments reasonable. Maybe plan on one story per month, 1 to 5 articles per week, and/or a marketing advertisement or other creative project each month. Attach enough extra time to accomplishing the tasks without over scheduling yourself. This project schedule outlines the most important thing in a Writer's business plan.

Keep to your schedule

You really don't have to write according to a set schedule without exception, but you should find some kind of consistency. One of the best and worst things about writing is its flexibility. It can be to your advantage, if you inspiration follows, or to your disadvantage, if you abuse the writing process too much. What keeping to your schedule means is looking ahead for what assigned projects need to be completed and accomplishing the tasks, even if it means adjusting the time devoted to each item.
If you include writing a business plan as one of your projects you will have one more writing project to your name. It may be the best writing project you take on this year. It doesn't have to be perfect; it just needs to guide you to organize your writing of all those other various projects. A writer's business plan should include all the other information, as it focuses the efforts toward the financial aspects, if you want to earn money. But the crux of a writer's work is the writing itself, and the financials are a residual secondary.