This is part four in a four-part series on the seasons of your writing career, which is also the organizing principle I used in The Writer’s Workout. See posts one, two and three if you missed them.
The Winter of Your Career
As I mentioned in the second post of this series,we often associate winter with discontent and summer with tra-la-la, isn’t life grand?
However, when it comes to writing careers, most writers feel just the opposite. Seasoned writers are typically sincere, confident, and calm. They do not have to strut around like peacocks trying to get attention. They just kind of emanate wisdom that pulls others in.
Seasoned writers are content because they have readers and they know how to communicate with them. These are the veterans of the industry. Sadly many writers will give up before they come close to ever being a multi-book author. And yes, you can still recognize a seasoned author by how many books they have published, no matter who tries to say that books no longer matter any longer.
Books will always matter. And seasoned writers who have written many of them, know it.
Seasoned writers create worlds for their readers and also know how to be the bridge that escorts the reader back and forth between this world and theirs. When you hit the winter phase of your writing career, you have become a master at juggling worlds.
Like the earlier phases, many writers believe they have achieved the winter phase of their career when they still have a long way to go. And when they can consistently channel their ambitions in constructive creative ways, they may eventually possess the keys to the book world, whether they share those keys with publishers or not.
Writers who reach the winter phase of their career, and many authors have, live happily ever after…satisfying readers.
