“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.”
― Frank Lloyd Wright
I know what I’m willing to give, and I know what I’m not willing to give up in order to get where I want to be. I hope you have the same understanding of what success entails.
I will work hard and learn the craft. I will continue to work on craft long after others have floundered, and fallen by the wayside. I will dedicate myself to constant improvement, and I will mentor others who aspire to tell the stories that live inside them. I see writing as a process, rather like a journey than a destination.
So tell me, what do you do to ensure your success?
First things first, you need to understand that a plan is a very good thing. Now hold on to those tempers all you pantsers out there who never want to plan anything and who believe planning is a curse. It is not a crime to plan your work. Have you ever heard this old saying, plan your work and work your plan?
When people talk about maximizing your writing time, this is the issue they’re addressing.
It is often useless and sometimes futile to sit down to write without having a clue what writing you will do today. I have always been in awe of the pantsers who sit down to write and just go for it. That physical demonstration of a leap of faith is awe-inspiring indeed. But I remember a time, years ago when a newbie writer sat down with great enthusiasm and a unique idea and wrote a four hundred eighty page novel without a viable plot. Great details to character, scenic description, and many other fine aspects of the craft, without a thought in the world as to how to bring them together.
What a waste of time, if not talent.
Remember, when you commit to each project you aim for success and having a plan will get you there.