It’s Friday, you guys! But unlike the many others who have the weekends off, I’m gearing up to work. But that’s not what I want to talk about today. Yesterday, I started talking to some more established authors from various loops, chats, and forums about something that has been on my mind.

I like non-fiction. It gives me a break from the words I write. Gives me a chance to think about other things. Like non-writing things, which to be honest, tends to fill a large space in my head. I love writing. I love talking about writing. I love talking about social media and all kinds of things like that.

When you start a business, the first thing that people advise you to do, before you do anything else, is to create a business plan. i started thinking about this when I was reading a book about how to be successful as an author and the authors suggested it. So, I sat down yesterday, and wrote out a three year business plan. I would think that five years might be better, but I’m not ready to think that far out, because I’m at a major crossroads right now, both in my writing and my life. And the best part about my plan is that I can adjust it later if I need to to include five years instead.

So, I did some asking yesterday, when i got this hare-brained idea about a writer career plan, and found a surprising number of authors, even self-published authors, didn’t have a career plan in mind other than “get this damn book out!”

I decided I want one, and started making one. It’s not done yet, or I would post a basic template of what I did. Maybe I’ll do that next week.

What I started with this week is something that I can share. The first thing I did with my new writer career plan is set my goals for the next three years. I came up with one sentence that is what I want from my writing in three years. It’s my going to be my Main Goal. That sentence encompasses everything I want to get accomplished over the next three years.

This statement is about me and what I want to accomplish in SMART goals. And what is SMART?

S – specific,

M – measurable,

A – attainable, achievable,

R – realistic, relevant, reasonable,

T – time-based, timely, tangible, trackable

I’ll probably do a SMART goals breakdown later, but you can get the gist of it here. I could say “I want to be a writer!” or I can say “I want to be making X dollars per month, selling Y number of books, and be finished with my degree.” See the difference? That’s my Main Goal.

Then I have about five Supporting Goals, all which when achieved will give me my Main Goal as a result. These may be “Write X number of books” or “Promote each title published” or whatever. They are kind of like action steps to achieving the Main Goal. I’m working on breaking these down into bite-size action steps now.

I have a lot of other things on my plan, which eventually, I’ll share with you guys, because I do think that every author should have a career plan.

For now, I’m curious. Do you have a career plan for your writing? What kinds of things do you put on your plan? Or would you if you had a plan (which you should…)?