Last week, I shared my new dream with you: writing and workshopping full-time, while making enough money to live comfortably with Clyde in a Midtown Atlanta condo and travel for one month out of the year. (As dreams go, that’s pretty tame, really, when you think about it.)
I also hit on the idea of performing my own “gap analysis” — an investigation of where I am, versus where I want to be. Right now, I’m here at Point A: living in Jackson, writing full-time, but not quite earning what I’d hoped. I want to be at Point B: living in Atlanta, writing fiction people love, writing non-fiction on the topics that really interest me (creativity, travel, spirituality, relationships, food), and making about $100,000 a year.
I know where I am. I know where I want to be. I know the size of the gap. The next step? Building the bridge that spans the gap.
Some of the “planks” in my personal bridge include:
1. Prioritize work appropriately. Emails pour in. Phones ring. Web sites beckon. Assignments pile up. With only so many hours in a day, I’m going to have to do a better job of identifying important tasks … and declining or deleting others.
Knowing my goals makes prioritizing easier. From now on, errands for Clyde rise to the top of the list. In addition, assignments related to becoming the writer I want to be — contracts paying royalties, fiction and fiction-related assignments, articles related to topics I’m passionate about, and creativity workshops — must now take precedence over any other work.
2. Budget my time and energy appropriately. My best writing happens in the mornings. Rather than spend any of that quality time on email or surfing, I’m going to spend 6:30-8:00 and 9:30-Noon on prime projects. I’ll reserve afternoons for second-tier assignments: answering email, marketing, personal projects, etc.
By the way: with an eye toward having more time to work on my goals, I’m changing the way I deal with email. I’ll be checking it once, very early … and once again, very late … and that’s pretty much it. I’m also trying to limit myself to responses of just three- to five-sentences in length. If you’re a friend, please don’t think I’m being terse. In an effort to actually finish my books, I’m no longer writing book-length emails.
3. Every day, even in a small way, make progress on fiction. The jump to writing fiction is one of my most important goals … so it’s time to pick a fiction project, jump on it, and move it to completion.
Right now, I’m writing a short novel (30,000 words) as a companion book for the Tarot of the Elves. Once this project wraps up, I know what my first 75,000-word novel will be: a revision of the first novel I ever drafted, originally titled Family Thais. Using what I learned from writing that first draft, I’ve already sharpened the novel’s focus, redefined the characters, added tension to the storyline, and come up with a new title. Watch this spot for progress reports!
4. Attract some higher-dollar assignments. I’ve got to become a more aggressive negotiator. I’ve got to be more willing to charge a “confident wage” for my work. Instead of scrambling to find more small jobs, I want to make the move to larger, higher-paying work.
Those kind of contracts won’t come from niche-market work … so I’m looking at my project list with an eye toward assignments that can be easily and naturally adapted to appeal to larger audiences.
As I’m writing this, I’m realizing that it’s all very personal stuff. But I’m sharing it for a reason. If I can do this gap analysis and start building a bridge to my dream, you can, too. Where are you? Where do you want to be? And what changes do you need to make in order to begin building your bridge?
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