Embrace These 4 Key Roles for a Flourishing Writing Life

Summary: I was an English major with a creative writing emphasis. When I looked to my future, I saw myself writing. Over the years I managed to build a writing career, but as an English major, I wasn’t prepared for the business aspects of writing. Invoices, receipts, taxes? That was all foreign to me. Sharing my writing through speaking and social media? That’s not what I imagined when I launched my writing life. I thought I’d be...writing. But I had to understand and embrace the four key roles that lead to a flourishing writing career. https://youtu.be/A2_iAAQm1Kk This is how I think of them: Decider Delegator Doer Declarer These four roles in a corporate setting might be something like: ➤ CEO The Decider is like the CEO, the Chief Executive Officer. That’s the top dog, the visionary, the decision-maker. ➤ COO The Delegator could be the COO, the Chief Operations Officer, the person who figures out how to run the business at a practical level. ➤ CWO The Doer could be the CWO, the Chief Writing Officer. This role, the CWO, doesn't exist in the business world, but we're inventing and elevating it for this discussion because it’s the reason our business exists. Like me, you launched this whole thing so you could write. ➤ CMO The Declarer is like the CMO, the Chief Marketing Officer: the person who ensures the message gets out. At any given moment, a flourishing writer may be completing a task that falls under any one of these areas. Some of the tasks and roles don’t seem like the work of a writer, but they all support that core function. When all four areas are addressed, a writer will start to build a profession, a career, and a sustainable writing life. And it starts with the Decider. THE DECIDER, THE CEO The DECIDER—the boss, the CEO—is the person making high-level decisions about your writing career. You fill this role. You decide your author brand, your audience, your career path. As the Decider, you determine a trajectory that aligns with your goals and values. * You decide if you’re in learning mode and need to gain more skills or more knowledge of the profession.* You decide if you’ll focus the next quarter on submitting to literary magazines or developing a book proposal.* You decide if you’ll pursue fiction or nonfiction, short-form or long-form.* You decide if you’re ready to increase visibility online. When those decisions are grappled with and made, you get to step into a second, practical role—that Delegator, the COO. THE DELEGATOR, THE COO The DELEGATOR-you, this COO, is the administrator, the project manager—the person who figures out who will be responsible for a task or activity. When you’re the Delegator, you take those decisions and figure out the best way to pull them off. If you decide, as the CEO, you need to learn, then the COO or this Delegator-you will research books, courses, and conferences and figure out which ones are best. The Delegator looks into social media solutions and determines whether to hire someone to map out a ...

Embrace These 4 Key Roles for a Flourishing Writing Life

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