How to Grow a Writing Career

Writing careers are not like many other careers, where there is at least the appearance of order and predictability. For the nurse, the lawyer, the software engineer there are degrees to earn, résumés to write, and finally companies to be employed by, where a ladder of sorts can be climbed to more money, more responsibility, a better office, and perhaps a prestigious title. There is something so reassuringly tangible about a company that existed before you were employed there, a garden already planted in which you need only do your small part to grow with it.

Of course writers have their own ladders they dream of climbing, the tippy-top of which many a quiet hour is spent imagining. There at the higher rungs are the bigger advances, the higher Amazon rankings, the prestigious awards. But unlike in a company, the way up that ladder is not so clear. On the one hand, the answer is always the same: sell more books! On the other hand, the books you want to sell more of -- yours -- have never been written before. Your career is your own garden, and while it may resemble others, its originality is as inescapable as your page is blank.

This reality can be daunting to the beginning author. Punching a time clock may not be an inspiring start to the workday, but you know every minute translates to dollars in your pocket. There is no such certainty for the writer. Or, I should say, the certainty is found elsewhere. It is found where few are taught to look for it, where, in fact, we are often taught it simply doesn't exist.

Ironically, every writer who has ever finished a single scene, whether it was published or not, knows exactly where to find the certainty they often spend many idle hours fretting will never be theirs. We do not start a scene knowing every single thing that's going to be done and said in it. Maybe we know where it will begin and how it will (probably) end. The rest we'll just figure out. The rest we'll let come to us. The rest we'll imagine, we'll hear, we'll discover. That's the fun of writing.

A writer cannot see the last sentence of a scene before it is written, anymore than he or she can see tomorrow before it is lived, but once you've written a few scenes, you don't worry much about how you'll get to the end of a scene when you start it. You may worry about your book if you've never finished one, but for those shorter sprints, you've learned to trust that all the necessary but undiscovered details will come. They always do. Every time.

To learn more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-kenower/how-to-grow-a-writing-career_b_8845478.html

To see how it can payoff: http://www.fredericksburg.com/features/health_living/popular-blogger-gets-personal/article_159a9801-9385-5977-95aa-88eeebb15aec.html