If you want to have a career as a writer (and to keep it once you have it), you need to think about both the long term (which requires strategy) and short term (which requires tactics).
THE IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGY
As a writer, some of the elements you want to think about in terms of strategy include:
- Which genre do you want to work in? How will you break into that?
- Which formats you want to master (film, TV, transmedia)? What do you need to learn and how will you learn it?
- What kind of support team you want to build as your career expands (agent, researcher, admin assistant, etc.)? Where will you find them or attract them?
It’s also useful to think about your strategy when you see big changes coming in your realm. For instance, writers need to be aware of huge changes taking place in publishing and TV and film.
My personal example: in light of Hollywood’s increased commitment to huge budget special-effects movies, I’ve stopped pitching ideas or writing spec scripts for that market. That may sound like a strange decision, but that's not the kind of story I like to watch or write, nor is it what I do best. Also, there are a small number of writers who specialize in that genre and dominate it.
Instead, I have started looking toward micro-budget and low-budget films made for distribution theatrically or or the internet. I’m also exploring enhanced ebooks and transmedia. My guess is that this is where there are going to be major opportunities for writers to have creative control over their work and—eventually—make serious money.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TACTICS
Tactics are about adapting to short-term changes and taking advantage of opportunities as they come up. For instance:
- Where are the opportunities for you to improve your skills right now?
- Where are the opportunities for you to get produced right now?
- What’s going on now that you could use to promote yourself?
- What is the best use of your time today? (This is one I often violate, unfortunately!)
Here are some personal examples:
- Not having any contacts in Hollywood, I started a newsletter and used that to get to interview major players in the TV and film business.
- When one of my plays got bad reviews (but a good audience response), I took out an ad in Variety that said: “The critics are unanimous!” I didn’t mention they were unanimously negative.
- When I saw that a particular publisher was starting a new lifestyles imprint, I contacted the editor via email and pitched an idea to her. They have since published three books by me. Two of them are in second editions and one of them has more than a dozen foreign versions.
I suggest that once a week or so you take fifteen minutes to review your tactics to make sure they are supporting your strategy; once a month take time to go over your strategy and check whether you may need to adjust it.
(For London readers seeing this before July 5, 2012: These are jus a few of the ideas I’ll be sharing in week 5 of my Raindance Writing Coach series, on Thursday evening, July 5. The topic that evening is "Guerrilla Warfare for the Writer." I invite you to join me and let’s figure out how you can make an impression in the crowded writing marketplace. That workshop is part of a series but you can also sign up for it by itself. For info, go to: http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/the-story-coach-with-Jurgen-Wolff.
If you miss out on the workshops you will find lots of useful information in my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)
