Creating Focus for Your Writing

I don't know about anyone else, but I have a large number of writing projects on the go. Every time I turn around, there's another idea that pops into my head that calls my attention. However, one needs to find a way to focus their writing efforts, so they actually complete their projects.

Developing focus is one of the topics that I have found myself talking about with my mentoring clients and in my personal writing groups. There seems to be a general consensus. If you are wanting to eventually turn your writing into a way of making a living, you need to tackle this issue by compartmentalizing your writing.

Let me explain further.

Categories for Writing Projects

There is truth to the statement that you do need to write for the sake of writing. However, if you are wanting to eventually make a living at writing, you will need to look at where the market is going, and cater to that. As such, writing can be classified into three categories:

• Market Writing
• Passion Writing
• Get-Off-Your-Chest Writing

Let's look at each of these categories in turn, starting with the last one.

Get-Off-Your-Chest Writing

These projects are the eclectic thoughts and musings of the rambling writer. They could be those writing exercises that you do to get into the mood for the creative things. For those who keep a diary or a public blog detailing their journey as a writer, your writing for that will fall into this category. (My personal blog falls into this category. The random thoughts that go there...)

Or there could be that random scene that is demanding your attention, but doesn't seem to actually have a home in any manuscript that you might be working on. You know the scenes that I'm talking about. They are so demanding, and you can't move onto the projects that you actually want to work on until you actually deal with them. I guess this category could also be called Get-Out-Of-My-Head Writing.

You save the snippets somewhere, but they may never see the light of day. That's okay, because that's not why you wrote them. You are a writer, and your brain insisted that you write them. Accept it and move on.

Passion Writing

Your Passion Writing is the project (or projects, as the case may be) that you turn to when you're just not feeling it. This is particularly necessary for fiction writers.

At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that you need to write for the sake of writing, but there is much more to it. You need to have passion for what you are writing. If you lose that passion, it actually does come through in the writing, and you'll send your readers to sleep — even in those high-action scenes. Your Passion Writing is the project you will turn to when you've just had enough, and need to escape reality.

This might be a later book in a series that you are writing, or another book in another world altogether. Exactly how that Passion Writing takes shape is entirely up to you. Basically, it's the project that you tinker away at.

However, do keep in mind that eventually, your Passion Writing may become your Market Writing.

Market Writing

To put it simply, Market Writing is the project that you are working on with a single goal in mind: to bring the manuscript to market. If you are serious about turning your writing into an avenue for generating an income, you will need to work on your Market Writing for majority of the time when you actually sit down to focus on your writing. This means that you can't be slack with it and take those lazy tricks to just get it done.

A word of advice: if you have entirely lost the passion for your Market Writing, then you need to temporarily swap that project with a project from your Passion Writing. This is why many writers have multiple projects on the go at once.

Eventually, you will likely have 3 Market Writing projects:

1. the book that is being marketed in its final production stages (typesetting and waiting for proofs — so not fun);
2. the manuscript in the final editing phase (it's out of your hands for a large portion of time, waiting for the editor, or whoever, to finish with it);
3. the young manuscript being written/rewritten/edited.

In the beginning, a writer should focus on the third type of Market Writing. And it's perfectly okay if a Market Writing project finds that metaphorical drawer and never comes out again. Don't get despondent if you have a large number of manuscripts sitting in that drawer. You don't want to know how many projects I have just sitting there, not being looked at (double digits, but I won't mention where in the double digits).

Personally, I don't have any books in those final production stages at this time, but I do have manuscripts sitting in the final editing phases and the young Market Writing phase, as well as a number of Passion Writing projects. If you are interesting in learning more about my personal projects, you can find more details on my personal blog.

It is a different mindset that a writer needs to take on if they are serious about turning their writing into a profession. But remember: you are not alone.