The Career Dangers of Missing Your Annual Writer Check-Up

Few of us are thrilled to keep our annual physical check-ups with our primary care physician, and sometimes that means a small issue goes unattended for too long and becomes a larger problem.

What are the career dangers of missing your annual writer check-up?

Same. A small issue unattended can become a larger one.

Find time today to honestly answer the following self-check questions to keep your writing career its healthiest and avoid the dangers of an abnormal growth or–as costly–a writer nutritional deficit.

 

How’s my Wait and Height?

 

Have I gained ground in graciously navigating the waiting associated with publishing, or have I drifted into bloated impatience?

Am I reaching higher or shrinking in enthusiasm? Does writing hold its proper place of priority in my life or have I let lesser things encroach and compress my writing spine?

Note the “proper” place of priority. It will be different for every writer. But some authors say it’s their career and act like it’s their hobby. Or they say they’re working toward publication but they’re instead hoping for publication and stopped the working part long ago.

A telling question is to ask “Where am I today compared to a year ago?” No difference? No progress? Regression? Sounds like something that needs attention.

Am I breathing Fresh Air as part of my health routine?

 

No one argues the value of time spent outdoors for the health of the human body. Doctors say that in a progression that mirrors the increasing “indoor time” motivated by screens and phones, almost none of us get enough Vitamin D. (If you’re one of the rare exceptions, good for you.)

What kind of air are you breathing in your writing life? Stale air–same book you’ve been working on for eight years? Same small circle of writers from whom you glean input and critiques? Same handful of people who you reach on social media or through your newsletter? Did you ever get that newsletter started that you intended to?

Is your website air as stale as a northwoods cabin after a long winter? When did you last set your website in front of you and ask it how it’s doing? Is it alive or limping along? It might be funds that have kept you from updating (or starting) an author website. Be honest. Have you made progress saving toward that goal in the last months, the last year?

Are you staying abreast of reader needs, publishing changes, editorial expectations? If not, you may be doing daily CPR on a project that already (God rest its soul) passed.

How’s my Blood Work, and how does that relate to career dangers for my writing?

 

As someone who learned the scientific value of blood tests in my first career as an adult, I’ve remained aware of the necessity of regular lab work that reveals kidney and heart health, digestive health, threatening infections, optimization of the body’s systems. How does that apply to writers?

What’s pumping through yourwriter veins, and is it pumping well? Under a microscope, would your blood cells reveal diseases like resentment, anger, unrelenting frustration, entitlement, constant comparison? Or would the tests show growing compassion, knowledge, wisdom, peace?

Was a class in Point of View prescribed to you, but you stopped because you didn’t think it was doing any good? So you’re still deficient in that area?

Have you been told your built-in audience numbers are anemic? And you’ve done nothing to change that? Anemia doesn’t fix itself without some kind of intervention.

Are you messing with your medications? Some days you swallow the diligence pill. Some days you skip? You were consistent in PT (progress therapy) for a while, then slacked off…and wonder why your writing muscles and joints are stiff?

Quick Check

 

Don’t shy away from the results. You may be in the career danger zone because of missing your annual writer check-up. But there’s still time.

Recommendations:

• If an agent or editor asked to see your proposal, but you needed to do one more edit first, do one more edit but then SEND it.
• If you know your opportunities will be much improved if you invest time and perhaps money in growing your built-in audience, start doing so, and don’t stop if results vary or are slow to notice.
• If you have grown slack in your attention to deadlines, that’s an easy repair. Be faithful to your promises or what’s expected of you.
• If you suspect a deficiency but don’t know what it is, ask a professional.
• If you’re exactly where you were a year ago on whatever topic–website, social media, newsletter, book proposal, research–consider this your booster shot to move your forward from that stale, infection-prone place.

 

Best practices for Writer Health? Podcasts like the Books & Such podcast. Continuing Education through this blog and its library of archives. Listen to the professionals.