How To Take Your Career From Whine to Shine

Feeling frustrated that your career isn’t where you want it to be? Do you wonder why with every passing year you don’t seem to be any closer to success? How can you turn that frustration into a win?

I encounter other writers who share your frustration. Here are 6 things I believe will help you take your career from “whine” to “shine!”

1.    Define your goal.

Be as specific as possible. What is it you want? If you don’t define your goal, if you don’t know exactly what you want, how can you expect to get it?


When I was starting out as a writer, my goal was to have a career as a novelist. I wanted to write books for a living. I didn’t want to write as a hobby, I wanted a career. I discovered the basic steps: write great novels, sign with a good agent, get published, etc. But as I worked through the steps, I never, ever forgot the original and ultimate goal, which was a career as an author.

2.    Be single-minded, a.k.a Count the cost.

This is where I see so many writers—good, talented writers—steer themselves wrong and delay the attainment of their goal. Being successful requires focus. Laser focus. The focus of a heat-seeking missile. It requires asking oneself hard questions. It requires tuning out voices giving you bad advice. 

One of the pieces of advice that is like nails on a chalkboard to me is: “You gotta get your name out there.”

What does that even mean? I recently had a conversation with a fellow published author. When I asked her why she was writing short stories and novellas and self-publishing them, she said, “To get my name out there.” I asked her what was the goal of getting her name out there, and she said, “To drive readers to buy my book.” 

“Is that working?” I asked. The look on her face answered my question. “No.” 

If you want readers to discover your books, you need to write more books. If you want to have a career writing novels, you need to write more novels. If you’re agreeing to write novellas for novella collections with other authors, and writing those novellas is keeping you from writing more novels, you need to ask yourself the hard question: “Why am I doing this?” “Is this helping me attain my goal?”

I had a similar conversation with another writer friend who announced she was starting a blog and she was going to set herself a strict schedule of blogging three times a week, because that’s what gets followers for one’s blog. This writer friend had been trying to get the same book published for years and had not written any other books. I asked her why she was writing a blog instead of starting on her next book. She said it was to get her name out there.


Sigh. If you want to get your name out there, write more books, and work at getting them published. Ask yourself, “How is having a blog going to help me accomplish my goal?” If you can’t definitively answer that question with anything other than, “It won’t,” then skip the strict blog-writing schedule. Skip anything that keeps you from writing the next book and getting it published. Let me repeat that. Skip anything that keeps you from your goal.

My point is that you have to count the cost of anything you decide to do, because when you divide your time doing things not directly focused on your goal, then it’s just going to take you that much longer to reach your goal. Know your goal, and know your limitations. 


3.    If what you’re doing is not working, try something else.

If you’ve been working on your craft, practicing said craft by writing several books, and trying to get published, but no traditional publishers are interested in the kind of books you write, it might be time to go indie and publish your own books. Thankfully, we live in an amazing day and time when such a step is a viable option. Many writers have done quite well for themselves by self-publishing. And I love that we have that opportunity and that today’s technology makes it possible to have great success as an independent.

Work hard but work smart.

4.    If success is eluding you and you can’t figure out why, read a book.

But not just any book. I just finished 9 Things You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Love and Life. It’s by Dr. Henry Cloud of Boundaries fame. With points like “Make decisions based on how they’ll affect the future,” and “Don’t make decisions based on your fear of other people’s reactions,” it’s definitely worth reading, and it might help you identify ways you are sabotaging your own success.

5.    Ask yourself the hard questions.
 
 Am I making excuses?   Am I burying my talents by not pursuing my dream?   Am I doing “busy-ness” instead of fulfilling my purpose in life?   Am I spending too much time with marketing and promotion? Is what I’m doing helping me or hindering me from reaching my goal?   Am I praying about each commitment before committing?

 6.    Pray about everything.

I mean it. Ask God to make clear to you what your goal should be and what you should be doing with your limited time and energy and finances. Pray for success. Pray before you accept that offer to become the church librarian. Pray before you agree to write a novella to contribute to your friends’ anthology. Pray before you sit down to a marathon viewing of an entire season of “Blue Bloods” instead of working on your WIP. And pray before you agree to write a blog post for that blog that has only three followers. (Sorry, but let’s be real.)

Be humble. If contest judges and critique partners (or reviewers) have given you constructive criticism, really look at what they’re saying and try to make the changes that will improve your writing. And don’t be jealous of the writers who are getting the things you always wanted. Easier said than done, I know! But take a hard look at whether you have jealousy in your heart, and surrender it to God. 

And while you’re at it, surrender your writing to God. I can remember the day I held out my hands and, with tears streaming down my face, surrendered my writing to God, telling him I was okay with whatever he decided to do with it. It was not long after that that things started happening and I got my first contract.

Realize that success may not be exactly what you expected it to be. I thought being a successful author would make everyone love me. Boy, was I wrong! I lost more friends the more successful I became, and the rejection I felt from those friends, alongside some one- and two-star reviews, was nearly crippling. I also know published authors whose expectations of income have been dashed. When you do attain your goals, you may still end up disappointed. 

So don’t set your heart on success. Set your heart on the One who is able to give you what you need.

And really listen for God to speak to you. David inquired of the Lord before making decisions. Why should we not do the same? Be diligent in prayer. God is faithful. If anyone asks for wisdom, he should believe and not doubt that God will give it to him. If we seek him with all our hearts, we will find him. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Ask and you shall receive. 

My favorite parable starts like this: “One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.” Luke 18:1 

Keep on praying! Never give up!

So now it’s your turn. If you have reached your goal, what do you think has been the secret to your success? If you feel less than successful, what is something you need to change in order to attain your goal? 

Leave a comment today for an opportunity to win a copy of The Noble Servant. Winner announced in the Weekend Edition. Melanie is generously giving away THREE copies of her release. Thank you, Melanie!

 

The Noble Servant

 She lost everything to the scheme of an evil servant.

But she might just gain what she’s always wanted . . . if she makes it in time.

The impossible was happening. She, Magdalen of Mallin, was to marry the Duke of Wolfberg. Magdalen had dreamed about receiving a proposal ever since she met the duke two years ago. Such a marriage was the only way she could save her people from starvation. But why would a handsome, wealthy duke want to marry her, a poor baron’s daughter? It seemed too good to be true.

On the journey to Wolfberg Castle, Magdalen’s servant forces her to trade places and become her servant, threatening not only Magdalen’s life, but the lives of those she holds dear. Stripped of her identity and title in Wolfberg, where no one knows her, Magdalen is sentenced to tend geese while she watches her former handmaiden gain all Magdalen had ever dreamed of.

When a handsome shepherd befriends her, Magdalen begins to suspect he carries secrets of his own. Together, Magdalen and the shepherd uncover a sinister plot against Wolfberg and the duke. But with no resources, will they be able to find the answers, the hiding places, and the forces they need in time to save both Mallin and Wolfberg?
 

 Melanie Dickerson is the New York Times bestselling author for whose success she gives all the credit to God. Her two favorite time periods are Medieval, which she has combined with her love of fairy tales, and Regency England, which stems from her love of Jane Austen. She earned her bachelor's degree in special education from The University of Alabama and has taught children with special needs in Georgia and Tennessee, and English to adults in Germany and Ukraine. Now she spends her time writing novels like a highly motivated woman on a mission, and being with her husband, two daughters, and two guinea pigs near Huntsville, Alabama. Visit her on Facebook and at http://www.MelanieDickerson.com.