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 and two, if you missed them.
The Fall of Your Career
The autumn of your writing career is exactly what you might expect it to be—a time when you can harvest because you’ve been working long and hard enough to have something to harvest in the first place.
This is the phase when writers typically progress from being “writers” to being “authors.” This is a phase characterized by hard work, and yet this is also the phase where a writer begins to reap some benefits of all the work that has lead up to this point. Unsolicited invitations may roll in. People may begin to discuss your name in association with your topic, when the topic comes up.
Platform-development and building becomes particularly important at this point. During this phase writers really start to understand what the phrase “produce yourself” means. We are no longer sitting around waiting for others to recognize our genius, if ever we were, and we are now aware that we have an active voice in the greater community around our specialty and a solid track record that we need to convey so that folks just meeting us will recognize our track record and contributions in our field.
I’ve been paying attention to my students progress over the years and I can tell you one thing I’ve noticed: the most prosperous have the most well-developed platforms. And they don’t typically earn money writing one way, they earn money via their specialty topic in many ways, and this usually begins during this phase of their professional development. They also continue to take responsibility and continue foraging ahead even though others are starting to recognize their work. They don’t let the early signs of success go to their heads.
Some writers, who have already worked long and hard to get to this point, will feel disappointed that they have to continue working long and hard if they want to see their career continue to grow. But you never “arrive” as a writer. There are always new ways to grow and expand what you offer. So try to be one of those writers who finds an authentic niche or cluster of niches and cultivate the kind of satisfaction that can only come from enjoying your daily work. If you can’t enjoy your daily work, then what’s the point?
You reap what you sow is true in life and also in writing careers. And just as in life, it’s helpful to have some tools and skills to help you sow better, so you can achieve the kind of results you’d always wanted…the kind you will begin to see in the autumn of your writing career.
