The difference between an amateur and a professional really comes down to one thing. The amateur does what they love when they can find the time and the professional makes the time to do what they love.
The amateur has no plan; the professional has a plan. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean if you have a plan you will be successful, but hey, one step at a time.
For the majority of my adult life I’ve been focused on how to pay the bills, keep a roof over my head, etc. I was devoted to the starting point of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
By Philipp Guttmann - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52306030
I wanted to be writing fiction, but I was never secure enough to be able to rationalise dedicating time to writing when the rent was due next week.
Just over a year ago I started working full-time night work at a crappy job that means not only are the bills paid, but I can afford to save a little and even splurge on new clothes; even before my old ones are full of holes! It took a little while to get on top of my debts and get used to being able to write part-time as well as work full-time, but here we are. Time to move up the hierarchy.
So, from this post on, I begin a harrowing schedule:
Monday: Opinion piece blog, my thoughts on whatever. Could be on some recent news, could be some aspect of writing or freelancing, could be a rant about drivers who have their high-beams on in a metropolitan area (Hint, they are the most reprehensible creatures on the planet).
Tuesday: Free Flash fiction day. A new flash fiction piece will be released on my website each week.
Wednesday: Review blog. A blog reviewing a story; could be old or new, could be written or film, or told with interpretive dance (Ok, probably not the last one).
Thursday: Patreon Flash fiction day. A new flash piece will be release on Patreon each week; if you want to get access that and other rewards tiers check out my page.
Friday: Podcast day. The Friday podcast will be me talking because I like the sound of my own voice. It will start off sort of improv, but I might change it up and try things over the weeks until I hit my stride.
I’m always happy to hear feedback on my content so I can make it better, so if you think I said something stupid then point it out to me.
Outside of weekdays, I’m working on short stories and novels on the weekends. I have a short story series ‘Frank Mason; Space Detective,’ which will be coming out soon, and a sci-fi novel ‘The Martian Ark’ which should be out in 2019.
Hopefully, this plan will help build an audience for my work and move me closer to being able to write full-time.
I’ll see you tomorrow for new content.
Let me know what you think of my plan, whether you think it is too much work to put on top of full-time, or whether you think I should be spending my time doing something else maybe?