Don't Quit Your Day Job: Are You Waiting for Your Writing Career to Take Off?

It is a perfect early summer evening. You are out with your friends, and you should be enjoying yourself Instead you are thinking of the articles you should be writing and that storyline that needs a little more planning before you move on to the next step.

You are going to be a successful writer. With some time and determination, you will get published, or find steady work in the field. Your dream will come true. When you are working on your dream, the bills have to get paid somehow. That is where the day job comes into play. In some cases, you may have to work multiple jobs just to keep a float.

The challenge is: How do you make it all work? When you are already working 50-60 hours a week, how do you make time for it all. On top of work you have your usual responsibilities like cleaning, cooking and laundry. You still need to get groceries. Not to mention, it might be nice to have a friend or two and maybe even a social life. It feels like there are not enough hours in a day just to do all the day to day things. How do you stay focused enough to keep pushing your career forward?

Juggling all of those things can be a mess. In order to make it work, you have to be somewhat organized. In this case, structure will be your friend. Set aside a specific time to work on your writing projects. How do you work best? Do you need silence, or do you need background noise. Do you need to outline first, or can you just write. If you need to take notes, do you have a system to keep all of that organized? Each person will be different.

Plus there is the leg work portion of all of this. Once you have finished your novel, you have to shop it around to publishers. In order to have sites and magazines to write for, you need to find places to submit your work. A simple internet search will supply you with publishers and other writing opportunities. However, this does not mean your effort stops there. Now you have to sift through all those websites to determine which ones are legit and which ones are scams. Some are not scams, but they ask for a great deal of work for little or no pay. Some publishers will gladly publish your book for a deposit, or for a hefty fee. Self publishing isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you go that route, make sure you are not getting ripped off.

All of these take a great deal of time and patience. Some people are lucky, and their careers take off rather quickly. Still, many talented people have to fight tooth and nail to try and get their careers off the ground. Sometimes it is hard to keep trying. All of the work does get old at times. Most times the key to success is perseverance.