The beginning of the New Year is traditionally a time for renewal and change as well as reflection on the past year. A symbolic fresh start. A time to put away bad habits and embrace new, good habits. We engage in introspection and reflection. Resolutions are made, and some are actually kept. All of it in an attempt to understand and perhaps improve our selves, our lives, and our world. With that in mind, I offer you a series of questions to consider, ponder if you will, and perhaps act on one or two of them with the idea of focusing or refocusing your writing and writing career. A chance to assess where you are and where you want to be, and set some goals on how to get your writing and writing career to the level you desire in 2009.

I’ve broken the questions into five categories to help you focus on different elements of your writing career. The first, About Your Work, addresses issues surrounding the product of your labors (your stories, poems, novels, and essays). It is designed to help you think about what you write and the topics you select. The second, About Your Craft, explores your relationship to the craft of writing. That is, it focuses on writing as an art form and your continued learning of that form. The third, About You as a Writer, looks at your relationship to your writing. Where writing fits in your life and goals and what you want form your writing career. The fourth, About Your Field, examines your relationship to the field of writing. While we may write alone, publishing is a business and writing a profession and we are surrounded by other writers and our work is published in a competitive market. And finally, About Your Business, probes you on issues of a purely business nature. You as an author are a business and this section hopes to help you focus on some of the business issues authors confront as their career advances.

Some of the questions could fit into a number of the categories. There are no correct answers to any of these questions. I hope that you find them interesting and helpful. I encourage you to pick one item from each section and focus on it this year to improve your writing career. Good luck in 2009!

About Your Work:
Describe your body of work in three to five sentences.
Is there a board, reoccurring theme in your work?
What issues, topics, themes interest you that you are addressing in your work?
What issues, topics, themes interest you that you are NOT addressing in your work?
Does your work address universal emotions, concerns, issues?
Do your stories approach the subject matter from a unique perspective?
Do you challenge yourself to move out of your comfort zone on topic, genre, and style?

About Your Craft:
In addition to working on your stories, do you write in a journal, keep a blog, do writing exercises, etc… on a regular basis?
Do you keep a writer’s book of potential story ideas, character sketches, dialogue and plot ideas as well as pictures or clippings for inspiration?
Do you regularly read other published authors in the genre you write?
Do you regularly read a variety of published authors across genres?
Do you regularly read articles, books, columns about the craft of writing?
Do you take workshops, classes, seminars to improve your craft?
Do you have other writers or readers read and provide feedback on your work?
Do you do the same for other writers?
Do you know what your strengths as a writer are?
How do you showcase these?
Do you know what your weaknesses as a writer are?
What are you doing to improve these?

About You as a Writer:
Do you prioritize your writing? Is it in the top 3 elements of your life? Top 5?
If published, do you tell people you are an author? Or do you just say that you write?
If not published, do you tell people you write and what you are working on?
What do you want from your writing? Emotionally? Financially? Personally?
What are you willing to sacrifice to achieve your goals?
Do you participate in local open mics?

About Your Field:
Do you attend, at least every few years, writers’ conferences?
Do you have a mentor?
Are you a mentor?
Do you have a support network of other authors?
Do you stay abreast to what is happening in the erotic field? Publishing in general?
Do you network with other local authors?
Do you attend author readings in your town for books in your genre? For other books?

About Your Business:
Do you have a clear goal for your writing? A five-year action plan?
Do you understand the publish business?
Do you understand writing as a profession vs. a hobby?
Do you have an agent? Do you know if you need one?
Are you aware of what publishers are publishing works similar to yours?
Are you aware of the current calls for submissions in your genre? In other genres?
What are you doing to make publishers and other writers aware of you as an author?
Do you have a web page?
How many stories did you submit last year? How many where accepted?

If there is an issue you would like me to address in Two Girls Kissing, please email it to me with the column title as the subject line. To be added to my confidential monthly email list, please email me with subscribe as the subject line.

NEXT TIME: Tough All Over: Thinking Outside the Box in Rough Economic Times

Amie M. Evans
February 2009

“Two Girls Kissing: Writing Lesbian Literary Erotica” © 2009 Amie M. Evans. All rights reserved.