The Payoff For Consistency

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Most of our writing feels unnoticed. We send it out and wonder if anyone is reading or following us. Because of the large volume of submissions, often publishers only response is silence and they don’t devote the energy to sending out a rejection letter. What plans do you have for your writing? Are you writing a book that you want to get published? Or maybe you have a personal experience story that you want to get into a magazine? Or maybe you want to build a website or start a blog or begin to be more active on a social media platform. Each of these plans are admirable but how do they happen? It does not happen by thinking about it. You have to sit in your chair, put your fingers on the keyboard and write the words or send the submissions or any number of other things.

 

Successful writers are consistent in their efforts. They take consistent action whether their work is published or read or not. A 50,000 word book manuscript is not written in a single session. Instead the writer writes words into their computer day after day until they complete the manuscript. If they miss a day or something interrupts their writing, they continue to move forward.

 

Because of the volume of articles in The Writing Life, in 2008, I sorted those articles into different categories and created a blook or a book which began as blog articles. While the concept sounds simple, it is a lot of work to transform random articles into a cohesive book manuscript which I called Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams, Insider Secrets to Skyrocket Your Success. I self-published this book and sold a number of copies. Later when I began to work for Morgan James Publishing, they published the updated edition in 2014. This book contnues to help many writers. I created a free sample at this link.

 

Since 2008, I’ve been blogging each week. While I don’t get much feedback or many comments about these entries, I’ve been consistent in writing then launching them into the world. Overall, it has felt like a limited number of people read these entries but occasionally it pays off. Last week I found my name and blog in this article called 27 Top Content Writers Sharing Their Talents. This article begins saying there are an estimated 600 million blogs online. The article includes a remarkable group of writers like Seth Godin, Ryan Holiday and Jeff Goins—and I was surprised to be included.

 

Also last week, The Writing Life was listed among 100 Best Writing Blogs You Must Follow in 2023. My consistency to write these articles is not with any expectations to be recognized or included in such lists. I write these entries teo encourage other writers and to document some of what I am learning about the writing life. Sometimes my consistency pays off.

 

Do you get these articles on email? If not, you can subscribe here. Also please forward this email on to others and ask them to subcribe. Thank you in advance for your help. While I'm mentioning help, I'll be speaking at a few conferences this year and have updated them on my speaking schedule. I hope you will check the link but also make plans to attend one of these conferences and we can meet in person. I look forward to it.

  

How has consistency paid off for you as a writer? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Tweetable:

As writers, most of our work feels like it goes unnoticed. What is the payoff for consistency? This prolific editor and author gives the details here. (ClickToTweet)

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