Dear Fellow Writers…January Message

One Word: Clarity

I have one word for you this month and that word is clarity. Clarity is the quality of being clearly expressed. Is your future success clearly expressed? How clear are you about your desires for your writing career in general? How clear are you about your goals for 2007? How clear are you on what you need to do the first week of January to get off to a great start?

Am I ruling out spontaneity, instinct and intuition by making such a strong statement? Absolutely not! Use them as much as you can. But remember, it’s your clarity that determines your forthcoming success. Setting a clear intention (or intentions) will help you stay on course.

If you don’t know where you are going, your writing career is most likely not going anywhere (at least not this year). So take a day or two now to get clear. Tune in. Listen to your gut. What do you really want? What do you actually need? Don’t forget to stretch yourself as much as you can. If you are not getting beyond your former comfort zone, chances are good you are stuck in a rut.

Get concrete and take one step in the right direction. Join one writer’s association. Save money to attend one annual conference. Pitch one book concept (as opposed to writing a full proposal—I explain how in my forthcoming book, Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids).

And then take more steps. Avoid detours, tangents, pipe dreams and any thinking that you cannot back up with common sense and you will succeed.

Here we go. Roll up your sleeves and write yourself a bridge to the not-so-far-away land of your writing dreams. Then clean yourself up, suit yourself up and walk across that bridge to meet your objectives halfway.

That’s how it works. Because clarity isn’t merely a to-do list, it’s an attitude.

I wish you the clarity you’ll need to achieve all of your writing dreams and, of course, the writing spirit,

Christina Katz

Christina Katz is the author of Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids (Writer’s Digest Books, March 2007). She is a featured presenter at the Writer’s Digest/BEA Writer’s Conference, The Whidbey Island Writers Association MFA Residency, and the Willamette Writers Conference. She’s been teaching writing-for-publication classes for six years and has appeared on Good Morning America. She is also publisher and editor of this e-zine and another called The Writer Mama. Christina blogs daily at http://www.thewritermama.wordpress.com/. For more about Writer Mama, visit Christina’s website at http://www.thewritermama.com/.