Over the past few days, I’ve been talking about core concepts to help you figure out how you want to develop your business. Yesterday, I talked about your core competency.

Today, I want to talk about why you want to be a writer, but not from an emotional, super floofy perspective. Why? To be validated? Recognized by your peers? Or do you want something else, to be like a particular writer, to live life on your own terms, get an award, etc.

It doesn’t matter to me what it is you want, but I will reiterate something before we get into talking about goals, and that is: the so-called pecking order is based on social interactions, perceptions, and personalities — but not on the reality of how well folks do (or don’t) in their career. That success, and how to achieve it, is subjective. As long as YOU are happy with what YOU’RE doing, that’s the only person that really matters here. Then, you don’t have to worry about what anybody else thinks and you can decide what works for YOU.

Or, as someone else put it yesterday, have your own agency. It will be 10,000 times harder for you to figure out whatever it is you want to do, though, if you don’t have a clear goal in mind. Those goals can evolve, but you won’t be able to achieve milestones or create a plan without them.

Here is a list of sample goals for you to consider:

Now, the thing is, a number of these goals are outside of your control. But, knowing what you want means that you will set smaller goals to work towards that, or you will unconsciously research what needs to happen in order to put yourself in a position where those goals are likely to happen.

That’s the thing about publishing. There is no guarantee, but you can help yourself by knowing what you want and working toward that possibility. Luck favors the prepared — and to be truly prepared it really is a three-part forum of knowing what you want, working toward that end, and then placing yourself in positions where that opportunity is most likely to either happen or be presented to you to take advantage of that.

The “guarantee” part is why there’s so much angst, drama, and negativity. It’s really not due to how awful people are. There are MANY great people in the creative industries on ALL levels. When bad shit happens or crap is being flung or writer punch down or sacrifice others, it’s because the security of being a full-time writer is always in question.

That’s enough to drive anybody mad, mad, mad. And this is why I’m saying: know this up front, and find a way to work around it.