The Writer’s Journey: Crafting a Personal Roadmap to Writing Success

There is no official road map to becoming a successful writer (if I am mistaken on this point, and just no one told me about it – please share it now!). As a result, we are faced with a hundred different approaches and no guidance on which to take. Do we focus on building a reputation and a following on social media? Or with short stories? Or focus only on novels? Do we go big 5 traditional publisher, small press or indie? Do we look for literary agents or open submission periods? Do we do fantasy or scifi? Or maybe another genre that sells well as a ‘throw it all against the wall and see what sticks’ approach? 

This topic came up recently, as someone in a writers’ group I belong to, and whom I know as a spec fiction writer, said they were thinking of writing a romance. I believe their comment was based on struggling to make it as a spec writer and what they observed was that the romance genre is the top selling genre, there are very clear ‘rules’ on which to base your novel structure, the novels are shorter than typical scifi/fantasy ones allowing you to produce them quicker, and the indie publishing market is hottest for this genre (though to be fair fantasy is up there too).

They said they were interested in doing this therefore because they felt it was easier to become a writer that way. I am not here to debate whether romance is ‘easier’ (for me it would be harder – I know nothing about the romance genre or its conventions as I don’t read it, and have not worked on the specific skills necessary to write it). I believe all writing is hard. All writing success even harder. But as a writer, if we see some track we perceive as ‘easier’, should we take it? I think this is a very valid approach if your goal is to be a writer, and you are agnostic as to how you get there or what kind of writer you are i.e. whether that is a romance writer or a spec fiction writer, a trade vs indie, or whatever other change of tack you are considering. What it comes down to is how you approach a writing ‘career’ should be informed by why you want to write and what your goals are. Having a really clear idea of that is essential to knowing how to act/react as opportunities arise.

So I don’t think there is any one ‘right’ reason to want to be a writer, but there are a lot of different ones: some people want to have a hobby, some people want it as their main income, some people only do it as they dream of not just making a living, but making millions. Those considerations alone create a divergence of priorities, but added to that some want to write a specific genre/only things they read, some like the idea of being a renaissance writer and dabbling in every genre, some like to just play with words, or have high literary aspirations, or this is their way of leaving something behind. Others just want money now, but don’t care about legacy, or word play or being poetic or clever. They’d rather produce volume. Maybe that is for commercial purposes, or maybe it is because having many books published is their measure of success, Some want the mystery of saying they’re a writer, or just to sound more interesting than their day job. Some perceive some prestige in it. Some write in secret. Some want full control of cover and copy and should go indie, some want nothing to do with any aspect other than the writing and only want trad.

Speaking personally, I write to have fun, to write the stories I enjoy that I conjure in my head, to put them on the page, and to share that with others in the hope they might like them too. I don’t expect it ever to be my main source of income. I don’t want to design or think about covers, or contract someone. It’s not that I wouldn’t care what my covers looked like, but I would rather leave that to a professional. As it is about the stories I like to imagine, becoming a romance or a thriller writer, even if that was what sold, would not be right for me. Nor would writing middle grade fiction. So I focus on genres I read – adult fantasy and scifi, And regardless of what opportunities come up in other genres I likely won’t deviate. Given my disinterest in anything but the writing, I do all the things that lead towards trad publishing, even though that means I am at the vagaries of other people’s valuation or taste, and the market, and so my work may never be published. But because of my writing aspirations and why I do this, I am okay with that. If I had different values or dreams than the above I would do things differently. And i think it’s also ok to have those goals change over time and to adjust your approach if your goals shift as you grow as a writer. I will say my attitude is these days likely colored by my stage of life. There are more years behind me than ahead, and so taking side quests into other genres is not on my agenda, and I’m less interested in spending my time thinking about romance plots when I could be doing what I really enjoy: casting spells and blowing up planets.

So why do you want to write? What is your vision of success? Thinking about this is, I think, a very worthwhile investment of your time. Defining what success looks like to you is the essential first step in designing your own map toward becoming a successful writer and avoiding all the distractions and temptations along the way. Because given our different goals, we all need to invent our own roadmaps on this journey. If you have any thoughts or suggestions please comment below!