Do It Yourself

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

When I was starting out in writing, the common advice was “you’re in charge of your career.”

I have no idea why that was the common advice, since as a beginning or pre-published writer you had almost no agency.

Note I didn’t say you have no agency. There were things you could do or refuse to do that could help or destroy your career.

Like, for instance, if you refused to learn, or refused to read how-to books, for some inexplicable reason, you’d be locked out of the language that the editors and agents talked, with the obvious knock-on consequence that when you were asked for a bigger book, you’d think they meant a longer one.

Or you could refuse to send your publisher what they asked for, for reasons good or bad.

Or you could refuse to stay fired and like an insane person spend the next several months spending the publishers proposals until they broke and bought something.

But this wasn’t being in charge of your career. You had no control over how good a cover you got, what distribution you got, or even if your agent was lying to you about sending things out (happened to me, twice.)

So in the end, what you had was what you had. Other people in charge of your career. People who could — and did — inexplicably, based on a rumor you didn’t even know about, decide you hated them, and therefore they would destroy you. (Again, happened to me.)

Telling someone in that situation that they’re “in charge of their career” is literally the equivalent of telling a person with no legs to run a marathon. They might be able to — given a wheelchair or prosthesis — be individually motile, but they’re not going to be running marathons or trying out for the olympics.

In traditional publishing, you literally needed your publisher’s buy in that you could be a bestseller to even get close to it.

The buy in wasn’t enough. I know names, which no I’m not going to give, which were pushed as hard as it’s humanly possible and whose sales are probably lower than mine.

So, yeah, there was some “agency” there (not as in literary agency) that when push came you had to be ready for it. Kind of like ‘when the wind blows your way, you’d better have the sails.” Which is great, provided you understand the wind might never blow your way.

And this is not even in terms of “Well, you’re the wrong political color” (which they might or might not have ferreted through my camouflage, but by the way trying to figure out if they did is a good way to drive yourself insane. Yeah, the trail was there, if they’d looked, but most people don’t invest that long analyzing a new author, even if he/she works for them.) It can simply be “he’s weird for our circles” (And trad pub was incredibly provincial) and we don’t think anyone will like him.

How much difference did the publisher buy-in make?

Well, here’s the thing, tying in with the comment above: Terry Pratchett, whom I found when he had just started out because someone in Colorado Springs went to England regularly, bought his books and — when getting back — sold them to the used bookstore, didn’t do very well in the US for ten years.

Now, I’ll admit he got much better as he went on, but I liked his first book well enough I had an alert on when his books came in. (Yes, even used, it meant we ate pancakes for a week.)

So, why was he selling practically nothing? Or 6 to7k copies per book, which back then was practically nothing?

Well… Covers, distribution, push.

He sold about what I sold, because he was in the stuff the book reps showed bookstores after all the pushed books and said “you can also order these.” So he had a book or maybe two per store, and if someone found them/if they were ever shelved/if they weren’t shoplifted he might sell half the laydown.

And then he changed agent (literary agent) and publisher. And suddenly he was selling 100k copies, and the publishers were no longer saying “Well, it’s British humor. Americans don’t like it” because obviously Americans did.

That’s the difference it made.

There was absolutely nothing — there probably still isn’t, even with indie — I can do by myself to give my self that kind of boost.

So when old pros said “you’re in charge of your career” it was good to understand this had huge limitations. Sure, I could hire/fire agents. I did. Never lucked out into one who was amazingly behind me. I could sell to other publishers, provided they liked what I was offering. I could learn their language and read the how to books to figure out what they were looking for. (How to write a bestseller was always “How to write a book your publisher or agent might identify as a bestseller. Because you needed the publisher/agent buy in, so that came first.) And you could — and oh, boy, many people did — kill your career dead. Like, you know, attacking someone or outing yourself as a conservative. (grin.)

Now, here’s the thing: we have more latitude in indie. And it’s harder to kill a career dead. partly because the buying public is a huge group. So whatever you do has less effect. It’s unlikely all your readers know each other and attend the same parties, so if you call a name to one of them it’s unlikely all the others will hear about it. Or know the details to be so sure you’re in the wrong.

But that works the other way too. You can advertise. You can have a podcast. You can hire a skywriter. But your growth will be small and incremental and your best bet is to work for the long tail.

Unless a miracle occurs, which it does sometimes, but is not under your control.

So, you see, I had a similar problem in 2020. I watched the world fall off into an abyss of insanity, and I kept thinking I should be able to stop it, I should be able to pull things back onto a rational course, if I yelled loud enough.

Turns out it’s not how that works, either. I’m not in sole control of the world sanity. Which is good, considering the number of clown noses around.

So what can you do?

In writing as in life, you can do what you can do. Carve out your little area of agency, control and sanity. Like, I have this blog, and I have continuously learning to do things better/do more things.

And keep on doing what you can. Everything you can.

Because, yes, if the miracle occurs, you want to be in a position to act on it. And if it doesn’t, you’ll have done all you can.

Agency has limits, but so has despair. And preparing to take advantage of opportunities (or respond to necessities) is the best antidote for despair.

95 thoughts on “Do It Yourself”

  1. I’m hoping to write and self-publish a book by the end of this year. I’m currently two chapters in and working on the third, and reviews I’ve been getting from various beta-readers have been highly complimentary.

    God willing an’ the creek don’t rise, I’ll have something to request a book promo for when December rolls around. Fingers crossed.

        1. May your will never falter, your time be plentiful, and your wit be equal to the task of translating ephemeral thought-stuff from mind to word to the minds of others.

            1. You can write bad stuff. I’m talking horrible, vile, altogether no-good stuff. Bad writing can be fixed. No-writing can’t.

              You know the overall story you want to tell. The bones. How it feels. Find something that made you feel similar, that you read once, and steal. Just remember to file off the serial numbers.

              You can put characters into random situations that have nothing to do with the main story. This gives you a better feel for the characters and makes them feel alive. Write them in a coffee shop, or at a bus stop, bored to heck. Or hungry and sandwich shop hunting. Or bummed because something they wanted badly didn’t pan out (date, job, even a pretty day that turned rainy). Playtime with characters makes them less wooden when they’re doing plot type things.

              Write about something else cool happening in the world, to get the worldbuilding kicking. You can use this later on to fake some depth. It makes the world look bigger. And you can use it to distract the reader of shenanigans you are planning in the background.

              Write the villains. Villains need at least as much love as the protagonists, if not more. Writing the villains and the stuff they get up to makes the story better. Almost always.

              Throw in random chaos. Open a portal to someplace awful, drop a starship on a random empty plot of land, assassinate a chef, kidnap a pet rock. Random chaos works to get things going sometimes. I use that maybe a little too much. My characters inevitably end up like noir detectives- lots of getting banged up.

              Learn three act structure. Add it to infodumps and character development lines. Make sure to let the characters fail, too. Developing a phobia or addiction in response to trauma is legit character building stuff. Overcoming failure is crack to readers. Let failure happen. And then build back up from it.

              And add a dog. Or a cat. Or some kind of pet/AI/comic relief/quirky character to humanize the character lineup. Pacing needs to take a breather every now and then, or reader fatigue sets in. Horror writing taught me that.

              Also, sometimes you have to limit yourself in order to let the creative juices flow. Unlimited freedom is the blank page. That’s a recipe for analysis paralysis. Write something, even if it is utter garbage. You don’t have to use it. But at least it is something. And it might just be awesome.

              Good luck. Write when you can. Show it off to people and get reactions. You’ve got a story in your head. What makes it to the page is what matters. Make it good as you can, then make it better.

                2. “There are nine-and-sixty ways / Of constructing tribal lays / And every single one of them is right!” (Kipling)

                  Writing a bad story and then fixing it is certainly one way.

                  I remember a distinction made some years (um decades) back about “pie crust” vs “bread dough” writers. The pie-crust writers had to get it close to right the first time; if they fiddled with their stories, the stories got worse. Thus the analogy to pie crust which does poorly if reworked and overworked.

                  The bread-dough writers could work and work and work to improve their poor first drafts, with the story getting better the more they worked on it. Thus the analogy to bread dough that gets better as you knead it.

              2. Even if the whole works needs to go, an outline could extracted and a new ‘body’ built on that skeleton…. or maybe it revealed that the skeleton needed some… adjustment. There was (is?) thing is software development, “Be ready to throw the first one (version) away.” The things learned from a “failed” attempt tell how to succeed – or at least not fail the same way.

              3. Dan, thanks for the tips. Sounds very good. Apologize if I jump in here. I usually lurk and enjoy what Sarah puts on Insty. But I’m definitely in the market for low-cost (meaning free) writing advice. Started a story some months ago as a defensive measure. The blasted thing wouldn’t leave me alone. Now over 80k words and close to done. Thanks again.

                1. My advice is a mishmash of stuff I’ve stolen from better writers like our Host, stuff I’ve learned works for me, and stuff I need to hear myself from time to time. I get a new “best piece of advice” on the regular that helps me.

                  You can try Brandon Sanderson’s YT videos for other advice. Advice on the business and praactical stuff also occurs regularly at MGC (https://madgeniusclub.com/ ).

                  The absolute best thing to do though, is keep writing. You can write bad stuff, but keep writing- the only way you ever can improve is to write. Not writing will never make your story better.

              4. The real irony kicks in when, after a few years, you can no longer tell which parts were in the first draft and which were added in revision.

                1. Or the parts that just flowed merrily onto the page like they were meant to be there and the ones that had to be forced out and pounded into shape.

                  The real turning point, I think, is you go from not being quite sure what went wrong to knowing where you screwed up AND how to fix it. Those first fumbling steps suck. But getting to the point you can fix things on the fly? Pretty awesome,.

            2. A perfectly good book of FICUS accomplishments for America, and you are covering it with stories.

            3. If the pages are defiantly blank, can you storytell it to someone? I sometimes use this.

              It works best with a real human someone, but a mirror can work, as can a cat. Always record it. Then try transcribing and editing.

              1. Right now, the story’s coming fairly well. I’ve even got material prepped and ready that hasn’t gotten onto the page yet. I’m simply well familiar with the blank-page problem, particularly at the beginning of chapters, and griping about it in advance.

                And I’m rather practiced in storytelling to myself, particularly where dialogue is concerned. But thanks for the suggestions!

                1. I tend to suggest fixes when presented with “stituatuon amnoying” rather than commiseration.

                  Not always the right signal.

                  1. I do the same. Possibly a bad habit. But, internet being what it is, occasionally someone else reads what you wrote, and needed it at the time.

                    Also, I’m old enough that changing bad habits might be an exercise in futility.

                2. If you have words in your head, get them onto a page. Even if they don’t belong in the chapter you’re writing now. If you wait until you ‘should’ write them, you’re likely to find they got tired of waiting and wandered off. Rounding them up again will be a right pain.

                  I wrote my first story all out of order. I had chapters 9, 11 and 12 finished while I was still struggling with the blank page issue on chapter 5. Chapter 7 was done before chapter 6. They all needed some revision when I got to where I ‘should’ be writing them, but that was much easier than trying to dredge up words I didn’t write when they were in my head would have been.

                  Writing another part of the story can also help with breaking through the blank-page barrier on the current chapter. “OK, that’s going to happen then, meaning this has to happen now.”

                  I’ve got paragraphs, scenes and partial chapters written way ahead of where I am in my current main work. I don’t even know exactly where some of them are going to fit in yet.

                  In the end, all writing is practice for more writing. None of it is wasted. Keep a notebook and pencil by the bed for when you wake up with words in your head.
                  ———————————
                  “Almost anything can be used as a weapon. Just having weapons won’t turn someone into a murderer.”

                3. What @Imaginos1892 says “If you have words in your head, get them onto a page”

                  Look up how Diana Galbadon writes. She spells it out on her web page. She writes down snips without knowing exactly where she is going to use it. Or knowing in general. Then, often as not, ends up using it somewhere it fits better. She had snips written for books she had written yet. A habit she started before she wrote Outlander, which was a book she wrote “for practice” … We all know where that went …

              2. I just read Brain Games for Blocked Writers: 81 Tips to Get You Unstuck by Yoon Ha Lee, which may be of interest.

  2. So true, even for those of us of extended age. I’m heartened by what I’m seeing in ostensibly blue cities like Chicago. There are things that people will NOT learn to live with. Corruption, sure, weirdness, of course (Keep Austin weird), but rampant crime, no, random drive-by shootings, no. Ask LL how her know nothing campaign worked out…

    1. Opportunity? Go find that lazy slug’s hooch. Drag him out of his fartsack. Kick his lazy ass to work.

      If you wait for opportunity to knock, you miss all the ones that do not knock. If you -make- opportunities, you can get even more done.

  5. I really need to get another copy of Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. It’s sort of a Holocaust memoir—he was, in fact, incarcerated in a concentration camp in WWI—but unlike the more famous Night, it’s not about what happened to him there, but what he discovered about himself and humanity while he was there.

    Basically, you can’t change your external circumstances. By definition, those are outside your control. What you can control is your reaction, and your attitude. And your choices can be as simple as “I choose to live” when someone else literally has the power of life or death over you.

    1. I found his book very helpful. I’d say that the first half is his memoir, where he explains how he reached the insight. The second half is applying that, and case studies.

      1. I’d recommend it as a proper book for young men to read. Any young man, really. Especially these days. Oh, women too. We’re all in this mess together.

  6. Who has the ultimate control over my publishing? Me. because the readers can decide what they do or don’t buy. The vendors can decide what they will or won’t carry. Editors (for other presses) can decide what they will or won’t accept.

    But all of these people only have the power to say “yes” or “no” if I let them. The first and ultimate control is: will I write? If I do not write, it does not exist for them to have the opportunity.

    The second is this: if I write it, then it is out there for them to make up their minds on. However, no one else has the final say but me. In the face of a “no”, I always have the opportunity to find another way to make it a “yes” from someone else.

    That applies to a lot more than writing, and it explains the strangeness that is my career, and how I got where I did, doing things that for my age, my level of broke in wallet and broken in body, and my connections, were… highly improbable.

    It’s been a good life. Frustrating, oh, yes. Painful. But I wouldn’t trade it.

    1. Sure. Over your publishing to an extent (in trad. In indie, of course you have control) because if you want to be published…. let’s say it gets in your head.
      BUT not your career. Not in trad.

  7. I know a guy who darn near killed an indie career dead, so it can happen. Did it by trying to go woke… and both not going far enough for the wokies and alienating a large portion of his reader base at the same time.

    He’s getting better. I believe he’s figured out what he did wrong. But trust is a fragile thing. When you abuse your readers/fans, they tend to remember that. See: Disney Star Wars. Amazon’s Rings of Power. Marvel. DC.

    Once that trust is broken, it doesn’t come back easily.

    Fortunately though, one can use a pen name. It’s starting over, in a way. But starting over with experience. That can help.

  8. Only speaking for myself, I’ve always been in charge of my career.

    Said career being taking care of myself and mine. Changed jobs, changed fields numerous times. Changed locations, from one end of and one side of the continent to the other.

    When things went wrong, after early on, I always blamed myself (Not actually, necessarily, blamed but took responsibility for.), I asked me what I could’a done different, what I otta do different next time. I know that’s not completely rational, not always valid, but I’d found early on (Which is why I changed my POV after early on.) if I assumed it was someone else’s fault, that was giving them control of the situation instead of me. In other words my career, my life, how it’s gone, ain’t nobody’s fault but mine.

    Haven’t changed the world. Tried, but sitting here and looking back, not sure that’s such a good idea. Gotta let folks do whatever they gotta do. Doing stupid is a basic human right and I must admit I’ve done my fair share, probably a bit more than my fair share.

    I’ve noted before, whenever I sit back and philosophically contemplate, a shot of Irish within reach, I’m pretty satisfied with now, right now. I know everything past, good and bad, led to now, right now, so even if I could I wouldn’t change any past thing, as this would be a different now.

    I freely allow such is rather sophomoric, but as much/most of my philosophy, my O&M manual for life, was formed during my sophomore years (I think that’s true for many of us.), none the less, I gotta say, it worked and works for me.

    Ain’t gonna change the world but if I can nudge here and there, making things a smidgen better for me and those within my reach, I’ve no complaints.

  9. Career… [insert pungent swear word here]

    Of all the lies I was told growing up, “Career” was among the worst. “You can’t just have a job, son. You’ve gotta have a Career.” And then I watched as my old man’s career ate him alive and spit him out like a f-in’ wood chipper. Left him for the crows, as it were. AND all his friends and associates too. Left by the roadside like garbage as the Great Machine roared on.

    40 years later, my “career” if one can call it that has been to gather knowledge, resources and tools, to build a situation in life that can’t be taken away by some intestinal parasite from the Human Resources department. If there’s a war they might get me. Otherwise I’ll probably live to be old.

    Looking at the writing universe, and reading of Sarah’s battles, I decided from the outset that I was writing for myself. The books I make are the best I can do at the time, written by me, for -me-. This is because I’m A) cranky as hell and B) I have no idea what other people like.

    I really don’t. Many things that achieve popularity and success mystify me.

    All I can do is pursue my own interests and put the results on the Amazon sales rack. That’s not a Career, or even a ‘career.’ That’s a pastime. Like making bird houses, but harder.

    Speaking of, I’m finally getting covers pulled together. I decided recently that a book with a picture of tree bark on the cover will sell better than no book at all, and so I am proceeding on that basis. Slowly, but at last proceeding.

    3. Career? I remember in 6th grade they had an officer come in to talk to us about what kind of a career we wanted. And they still do stupid @r$€ stuff like that, as watching a video on “careers” was one of the distance learning days last month. 6th graders are flush with all kinds of new hormones running through them, and are trying to figure out their place in the social order at school, how interested they are in the opposite sex, and likely among their first forays into organized extracurricular activities. I had no idea what I wanted for a career then. My daughter doesn’t either. She bounces between barista, dog groomer, veterinarian, and teacher on a daily basis. They start with the career talk way too early. In college my first advisor told me not to worry too much about getting the “right” degree, as most graduates didn’t end up working in that field anyway.
      Heck, I‘be been a police dispatcher for 25 years now. I started doing it after college because I needed a 2nd job to pay off bills, and stuck with it because it paid better (especially the benefits) than what I had been doing. I’m less than 4 years from being able to draw on my retirement, and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up!.

  10. I write to tell stories, to interest the reader in an honest history of one of the greatest and most daring political experiments ever – and if they aren’t interested in one particular story … I have others.

  11. I know a different verse of this song. Took a lot of beating before I figured out I needed to play hard-to-get while not actually being hard-to-get… So now I’m less underpaid and, for the moment, have a more moderate level of stress than average…

    C’est la vie, as the old SAC Gunners say…

    1. Along the lines of “career”, I’ve had 24 jobs since 1973. Been laid off, fired, or quit all but the current one, of course. Spent about 40 months of all that time unemployed, most of that since 2009 (15 months in 2018 and 2019, not fun). I think of myself as having an “IT career”; but attitudes and technologies have certainly changed a lot since my first computer-related paycheck. Other people only have the power over us we give them. Yes, even when they have guns and we do not. Reread [i]A Few Good Men[/i] more carefully if you missed how.

  12. One of the more infamous examples is “The Other Human Race” being published with a purple cover. It really didn’t sell.

    As far as Terry Pratchett, I thoroughly dislike American “translations” of his works. I’m okay with footnotes describing the Britishisms, just don’t change the actual text.

  13. Worth saying again, here.

    Never quit.

    Victory, and it’s cousin Achievement, go to the relentless.

  14. I’m back at work on Monday.

    I have to shoehorn fiction writing and blog writing and trying to live outside of my job and my head somewhere in there as well.

    In an area of the US that has gotten far too cruel for my tastes, but my family won’t move because they have found the home they want to stay at and the rest of the country is full of “people that are mean.”

    (I can see how gaslighting works. Far too well with people that should be smart enough to see through it.)

    But it’s either keep fighting or give up and giving up is far too painful at this point.

    1. If you can vacation somewhere nice, sometimes it becomes the gateway to relocation.

      “It’s a cool getaway, and I am also researching story ideas.”

      1. …should have thought of that, but had to deal with a lot of other stuff going on before I restart work again.

        Already have a few small weekend trips planned for when I’m settled into my new job.

  15. I’m always impressed when I see Sarah, or Cedar, or Dave, or Amanda, (so many examples to choose from) do something outside of writing. The spectacular artwork, and the do-it-yourself handiworks are almost from another era when we weren’t all so spectacularly wealthy. The US seems to have been founded by, and continues to flourish because of, a bunch of polymaths

      1. The USA has been skimming the cream off the rest of the world, four centuries worth.

        And it shows.

      1. Got two out, one novel one poetry book. Like you I get the ‘write!’ As a command. gulp (the other is worrying as it is reassuring. ‘Trust me’. not be ready, ‘trust me’.)

    2. I’m going to try to get some poetry written and up this year, but we’ll see. I’m thinking 50 poems will make a good book. And I can probably do 4-6 of those a year if I work at it.

      1. My poetry book was about 50 poems and 100 pages at 5X8 size and it makes a nice little collection. I’m hoping to focus enough to get another out in April but there are also novels to write. Fair warning: there is no real convention for poetry covers other than ‘literary’ (and even that’s all over the map) so getting something that ‘signals’ right is tricky.

    3. Free advice, worth every cent you paid for it: Set poems to music to reach a far wider audience. It worked for whatshisname, oh yea Leonard Cohen.

        1. wyrdbard > “Though the poems come faster than the music.”

          Unless you strongly favor composing your own settings, which is perfectly understandable if you do, why not crowdsource your readers?
          There are an amazing number of fantastic traditional tunes that can be mined.

          Think of all the great collaborative composing teams –
          Rodgers and Hammerstein
          Bacharach and David
          Simon and Garfunkel
          wyrdbard and the Universe

  17. No miracle for Sarah Hoyt, she is a fraudm

    People who love America don’t falsely accuse Marines of being traitors.

    People who love America don’t ignore that Marine when he offers his DL and DD214 to clear his name.

    You’re a foreigner. A guest of a Rome. And you spit on the Centurion manning the wall.

    1. First, you complete insane idiot, you came in telling us you’re a “former” marine. I’ll leave this as an exercise to the commentariat to explain to you why this is wrong. Second? Oh, you’re offering your discharge papers. That’s cute. It’s also the first time you offered them. Feel free to post them. That will be fun.
      Third? What does loving America have to do with not ignoring a complete troll — which is what you were accused of being, you unmitigated asshole. I have no actual idea if you’re a traitor. I think the schizophrenia is too strong to allow that, honestly — who comes to my blog and calls me names, then runs around all other blogs on the net implying bizarre things about me, which he has no way of knowing, interspersed with leaving comments that get spammed because he calls me various swear words?
      I’d say, except for the fact you’re FLORIDLY mentally ill, that your obsession with me was pretty bizarre. I can’t be the only person on the net who figured out you were spouting nonsense and said so.
      As for my being a foreigner, nope. I went through the naturalization process. I have no idea who the Guest of a Rome is or what? But schizophrenia often causes disordered speech.
      And I’m not spitting on any centurion, partly because there are no centurions. Rome has fallen A LONG TIME AGO. I’m American, living in America, where most of the military aren’t wild German tribesmen but citizens, who actually speak English, and who don’t spend their time developing theories about women bloggers and running all over the internet trying to blacken their names.
      And you’re either a foreigner or someone mentally ill. Profoundly.
      I recommend you get help.
      I also note you told us not so long ago that you lived in TX, but your IP is from Virginia. So, I suppose you IDENTIFY as Texan.
      Don’t bother answering. I don’t think you will, since you post here months apart when the crazy gets to that point. The rest of the time you run around calling me names all over other blogs. You are a profoundly ill individual and should find another past time.

      1. Oh, also, in addition, DUDE I don’t care if you’re a Marine, a Centurion, a Celt or a fuzzy purple bunny.
        You came into my blog and threatened to beat me for an imaginary blocking.
        What you are in actual fact is a dangerous lunatic. I’ll continue treating you as such.

      1. Oh, I see he’s using “Array” Now, which is one of the names of Chlamydia.
        Hey, guys, spread the word on all the right blogs where this insane fraud posts.
        Fen is REALLY Array, which is to say he is Clamps, Yama the space fish, and all the other names of that notorious troll. So when he posts at insty or ace whining that I banned him, out him with gusto, joy and even humor.
        You see, he showed as Fen in the back panel and I didn’t realize it was our old friend.
        Hello, troll. So, Virginia now, not Boston. And you were never closer to serving in the military than on your knees in the nearest tearoom.

        1. What’s really gross is that this idjit knows he has a real life paper trail in the eyes of the authorities and anyone else who cares to look.

          He’s probably in Loudon County somewhere showing up at school board meetings in a corset…..

      2. Yeah, getting involved in a war of words with a highly trained professional is a bad idea. If you are just a masochist, there are different highly trained professionals who can help with that. Mind you, I am not commenting on any possible overlap between the professions…

  18. Thank you Sarah, this is what I needed to hear. For some reason I feel like God’s been trying to tell me to be ready lately. Rest seemed to be the message for the last few years, but ‘be ready’ has begun to be my regular message from Him of late.

      1. In the ‘You know it’s God when your response is, “You want me to do WHAT?”‘ category, this whole Write And Publish THIS YEAR, Darn It plan popped into my head unannounced a couple of weeks ago. I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s getting done, so hopefully it’s meant to do some good.

  19. The problem with being in charge of your career is that you need to establish a good goal; which isn’t as easy as it sounds. Your goal should be what you want, it should be a stretch for you to achieve, and it should be attainable. But you need to recognize that if your goal depends on things that are not in your control, and there is no way around that, then your goal may not be attainable. So it helps to set multiple goals; especially if you end up achieving one, so you don’t end up wallowing around aimlessly afterwards. You enjoy the achieved goal, and go on to pursue the next one.

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