Becoming a Writer? You’ll Need a “Plan B!”

The most successful people are those who are good at plan B.

James A. Yorke

Becoming a writer takes passion, purpose, and persistence. No doubt, you have all the passion you can muster. I’ve yet to meet someone who writes for a living that wasn’t passionate about sharing their message with those who need to hear it.

You also need to have a purpose for your writing. Your words are important and carry a lot of weight. They can even drive people to to act upon them. So knowing your core purpose for putting word to page is imperative.

Passion and Purpose

Passion and purpose are two very important parts of becoming a writer. But, maybe the most important part is persistence. Without persistence you’re doomed to fail. Persistence is what keeps you moving forward when you’re ready to throw in the towel.

Persistence equals profit when it comes to creating any business, but especially one where content needs to be produced regularly to see paycheck. But, to make profit takes more than passion, purpose and persistence. It takes a well developed plan. A plan allows you to decide where you want the business to go and how you want the business to grow.

Your Plan A should include things like knowing…

• What you ultimately want to achieve in your business
• Who your audience is
• How you’re going to reach and build that audience
• What message you’re trying to convey
• How you’re going to convey that message
• How much do want to work in your business
• The amount of income you want to make
• How much of that income is profit
• How much goes back into the business
• What steps you’re going to take to generate that income
• Your personal challenges to creating a profitable business
• Any learning curves you need to resolve
• Breakdown of the steps you need to take at 3, 6, 9, & 12 months to build your business

And those are just a few of the steps that go into the planning.

But, laying out and following a detailed plan like the one listed above can be very overwhelming. You’re going to end up taking risks and doing some things you’ve possibility never done before. Despite your best laid plans things aren’t always going to go so smoothly.

You’ll have unexpected things happen along the way, it’s inevitable. It’s simply impossible to see all the angles, all the potential pitfalls, from the start. The unknown is all part of taking a leap of faith and building a business.

​The Unknown

To a large extent, this element of the unknown is why you can’t be prepared for or anticipate every eventuality. It’s simply not possible to look at all the potential variables and see exactly how they’ll unfold.

So, the best way to handle the unknown is to always have a Plan B in place. Setbacks happen at every level of business and life. These setbacks aren’t a result of anything you did or didn’t do, they’re simply a manifestation of the unknown.

A Plan B allows you to plan for times when everything seems to be going wrong. Those times when, you’ve submitted pitch after pitch and keep getting rejected. When your editor hates everything you’ve written.

When you open up a Word Doc and stare blankly at the page, because you can’t seem to think of anything to write. When your dreams of becoming a profitable writer need a reality check. And, when you need to keep those inevitable setbacks from setting in and stopping you in your tracks.

​Plan B

At this point you’re probably thinking to yourself, this dream of becoming a writer is more trouble than it’s worth. It’s hard enough to come up a Plan A. How am I suppose to come up with a Plan B? Your “Plan B” doesn’t have to completely different from your original plan. It can simply be an extension of that plan.

Your Plan B can consist of 5-6 different ways to create income when your primary writing gigs aren’t as plentiful as usual. Steps you can take to get back on track when writers block happens. Ways to find, research, and pitch new niches. A list of colleagues to reach out to for help and advice when needed.

A Plan B gives you a foundation that can help you recover quickly from setbacks. It also gives you piece of mind and allows you to move forward and take the risks and chances that can help you build your business.

If you need help creating your “Plan B” be sure to download a copy of our short guide: Plan On It, 5 Steps to Creating a Plan B So the Setbacks Don’t Set In.