6 Steps in Becoming a Working Writer

I have various writer friends at different stages of their writing careers, and like anything, we all must start somewhere, but where?

I have been asked many times, what do you do to become a working writer? How do you go about it?

People see that I did it and want to know the recipe, hoping to find the magic ingredient that’ll make it work for them. Sadly, there isn’t one. It’s a lot of hard work, time and patience, but there are steps you can take just the same as I did.

When I took voluntary redundancy and decided to make a living with my writing, I was at a disadvantage. I didn’t know what I was doing. The indie industry we know and love today was still in its infancy, and every writer trying to make their living was making it up as they went along, including me.

I’ve made mistakes. I’ve had triumphs. I’ve had moments of thinking, I should just give up, and other moments of thinking, oh wow, this is amazing.

I can’t give you a magic formula to make it all work for you, but what I can do, is give you the steps I’d take now, with the knowledge I have now and what I’d do if I had to start again from scratch.

1. Build Your Tribe

I did this one by accident back in the early days; I was on social media trying to connect with other writers, people like me. I was trying to find people to read my work. I hung around in social media groups, on forums and in the comments sections on websites.

I made friends. I found people who liked to read the things I liked to write.

I’m going to assume you like to write the same you like to read.

Go and hang out in reader groups. Find where other readers are and join, but as a reader, not a writer. You are not there to peddle your work. You’re there to make friends, to make connections.

Schedule yourself a little time every week or every day to hang out in these, but please, don’t be fake. People will spot that. Go in as a fan of whatever it is you write. I write urban fantasy; you can bet I’m a member of urban fantasy groups. We talk about the books we read, what’s the latest book coming out, etc., and I’ve been in those groups so long, I can share when I have my own book coming out, but that’s just a bonus.

2. Share Your Journey

People love a good story, especially those of people like them who make it. As well as joining reader groups, join writer groups and share your journey.

When you’re writing a book, especially your first, there is so much fun that goes into it, but also so much worry too. Talk about it on your blog, on your social media. Report on your progress. Potential readers love this.

I have people on my street team who have been with me since the very beginning. Back at the start, when I was writing a short, I would share some in my social media group. I’d show them what I was working on, and they’d comment, cheer me on, even give me the odd bit of advice where the story needed work.

Through sharing my journey, I created a bond.

YouTube is a good place to see this in action. Look at any writer on there, and they create their platform through growing and sharing their progress.

3. Manage Your Time

You are a working writer. Therefore, writing is your job. In some respects, make sure to treat it as such.

In the early days, I made the mistake of writing on the same computer I played my games on. Many times, I’d think, I’ll just log onto my game and do this. Hours later, I’d still be playing, with no words written and the children coming home from school. Hours would be lost, and I’d have not done a thing.

Now, I have a separate machine for my work. I even have a different room. I get that not everyone can do that, but you must manage your time otherwise, it just vanishes.

There is a time and place to sit and waste time on the computer, and then there is a time to work.

Treat your writing as you would if you were going to an office job. Show up, do the work, and keep to working hours. You couldn’t skip work in an office just because you didn’t feel like it. You can’t with your writing either. You have to show up.

I use two applications to help me with this.

Get focused, which uses the Pomodoro technique to have me working in blocks of time, and Self Control, which blocks certain websites for a chosen length of time.

4. Finish What You Start

Finishing what you start isn’t just crucial for your business; it is essential to you, too, especially at the start. Finishing a project has a tremendous effect on you mentally; even if what you create isn’t up to par with what you want, just reaching the end is an achievement.

I wrote three full books before I became a working writer. Those three books will never see the light of day. They’re my trunk novels, but they’re not wasted words or even wasted time. They taught me a lot about the process, about writing, about what it feels like to finish a book.

5. Don’t Copy Others for Fame and Glory

I get the irony with this when I’m here, telling you to follow these steps, but what I mean is out there, in the writing world. No matter what you write, whether it is books, blog posts or paid articles, there will always be someone ahead of you and someone doing it differently from how you do it.

There is an author whose work I love and admire. He puts out two books a month and is making a killing financially. I believe he’s set to make over $100k for July alone.

I can only dream of that at the moment. He’s way ahead of me.

I follow his journey. Not to emulate him, but to inspire me.

A few years back, I used to have the problem when I’d see writers reaching where I wanted to reach, being what I wanted. I’d follow what they did and try to implement it. Then, I’d see someone else doing something else and copy them.

I never got anywhere. I just had a ton of half tried things that never gave me the same success as it did the person I was copying. I ended up with a ton of overwhelm, a sad pit of failure, and a heavy dose of comparisonitis.

I wasn’t a failure. What I’d failed to realise was, my path was my own, and their paths were theirs. I could watch them and learn from them, but I was never going to be like them, and trying would just set me up to feel bad.

6. Write A Lot

It doesn’t even have to be every day, although that’s my goal. But to be a working writer, you must write a lot, and I would say you need to put writing first. Make it the thing you do before you do anything else, before email, before going over your marketing plan, before doing the laundry.

Writing needs to be your priority. It takes more than talent to be a working writer. Talent is just half of it. The rest of it is discipline.

This is also important if you don’t have a lot of actual writing time. When I started out, I had four children living at home with me. They needed my time and attention, so what writing time I did have was for writing only. I had to honour that time.

What Being A Working Writer Isn’t

Being a real writer or a real working writer doesn’t necessarily mean writing full-time. When I learnt this, it was so freeing for me. It might surprise you. You don’t have to have writing as your full-time gig if you don’t want to.

Did you know that Albert Einstein wasn’t a full-time scientist? He had an office job and used that as his income while he spent his spare hours working away on the thing he’s now famous for.

His dream.

Being a working writer is defined however you want to define it.