What Actually Works: How to “Make It” as a Writer

Recently, we closed registration on another online course I teach only a handful of times per year. And when we do this, I’m always amazed at how many people ask, “Does it actually work?”

These days, everyone’s trying to sell you a trick or a tactic, some quick hack that’s going to speed up your success. So I get the hesitation and skepticism. To be honest, at times, I’ve even been guilty of such promises. And it’s not that these formulas and strategies don’t sometimes work. They do. It’s just that they aren’t enough.

Take writing, for example. As I mentioned, this week I closed registration for my course Tribe Writers. The next eight weeks will be filled with a new group of writers learning how to get their message heard and how to build a career around that craft. But that’s not actually what they’re learning. They’re learning how to be, not just do.

And that’s an important distinction.

Sure, we promise things like how to build a blog and get 1000 subscribers, how to start making thousands of dollars per month or publish your first book, because those are the tangible things people understand. But what I’ve come to understand?—?at least in a creative career?—?is that the intangible is almost always more powerful than the tangible.

The intangible is almost always more powerful than the tangible.

The truth is you don’t need to learn how to “hack Amazon” or how to acquire another “simple trick” to launch a bestseller. Those things are fine short-term, but they’re not really what serious authors want. What we all want is to know that this is what we were meant to do.

No more pretending or hoping or waiting. You are a writer. That’s what you want to hear and believe and live. It’s what we want to believe about ourselves and secretly fear isn’t true.

What you really need

I learned this recently when I was asking our community what they tell their friends when folks ask them about Tribe Writers. How do they describe this thing? Here’s what some of them said.

Jan Cox, children’s author and poet, said:

“Good question. It is a shot in the arm. It is intentional. It makes you focus. It builds on what you know and pushes you past it.”

Clara Lucca Hinton, who manages a Facebook group of over 100,000 people said:

“It’s a group of passionate writers.”

Dave Kwiecinski told me:

“Just this weekend, at a marketing workshop in Atlanta, I described it as the best community of writers on the planet. ”

Sarah Simmons said:

“I say it’s an online writing course, but so much more, and that it changed my life. TW showed me a path to success and how to be myself on the way there. And I always let people know the community alone is worth its collective weight in gold (with 4,500 members, that’s a lot of gold!).”

Are you seeing a theme here? I am. What helps people succeed is not a trick or a tactic. It’s not even a course telling them what to do. It’s a community. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again:

“Every story of success is a story of community.”

So if you’re wanting to succeed, and that looks different to everybody, you should stop asking yourself, “What should I be doing?” and instead start asking, “Who should I be hanging out with?”

Because who you spend your time with will influence who you become far more than any strategy.

But what about the outcome?

Of course, this sort of thing doesn’t sell as well as the instant results that tend to pollute this World Wide Web in which we all get ensnared:

• “Become an Amazon best seller in 7 days!”
• “Make $100,000 in 6 weeks!”
• “Write a book in 30 days or less… even if you’re a terrible writer!”

But is that what you really want? Chasing results will always leave a little empty, if you don’t understand at a core level who you are and why you do what you do.

That’s why I’ve tried to focus my work on helping people become who they are?—?as writers in courses like Tribe Writers and as human beings with books like The Art of Work. It may not sell as well as the abundant promises of sudden success and riches we see from the world of Internet marketing. But I sure feel better about it.

Here’s the thing: if you focus first on the process, the results will follow. Activity follows identity. But if you focus too much on the end result and forget about the means to get there, you just might make too many compromises.

Success stories from professional writers

So far, this is working well for us. When people ask what kind of success our students see, I’m proud to point to some shining examples:

• I tell them how Mike and Kristen Berry launched a parenting blog and got a million people to visit it in a year and now write and speak full-time.
• I tell them about how Stacy Claflin wrote 20 books in three years, quit her job running a home daycare, and now writes fiction full-time.
• I tell them how Elizabeth Bradley started guest posting for celebrities, influential bloggers, and movie stars just by asking in the right way and quickly built an email list of 2000 people.

Or about Jackie Bledsoe who has become a full-time author and authority on marriage and family. Or Anne Peterson who has written multiple children’s books and devotionals. Or Sandy Kreps who has authored several books on simple living and regularly blogs on the subject.

So, yeah. People get results. They see “success.” But what I now realize is that success means something different to everyone. And by far, the biggest success you can achieve as a writer is to actually become one.

The bottom line

What I’m trying to convince you of is this: only you get to decide when you become a writer. No success hack or marketing tactic can help you do that. So the onus is on you to take action. Don’t wait for it or dream about it or wonder. It’s this simple:

1. Own who you are.
2. Find a community who will support and encourage you.
3. Let the activity follow the identity.

To be honest, I think this is really hard to do on your own, maybe impossible. I fell into some important relationships in my own journey, but some of that was luck and some of it was me finally humbling myself to realize I couldn’t succeed on my own.

When people started asking me how I did it, I realized there weren’t many communities to which I could direct them. So I created one, sharing all the best practices and lessons from hundreds of guides I met along the way.

I hired a team to help me grow and manage this community and we called it Tribe Writers. It’s not for everyone, but it is for the writer who is frustrated and isn’t afraid to ask for help.

Here’s the point

The point of all this is not to recruit you for our course. You can’t sign up. It’s over. No sales pitch here. The point is if you’re asking, “Does it work?” about any method or strategy, then that’s the wrong question to ask.

The right question is, “Will you work?” Because the truth is there are abundant ways to succeed today. The problem is we change course too often, get too distracted or lazy to apply the methods we already know work. That’s why community is so important. It’s the holding of your feet to the fire to do what you know must be done.

You need a team to help guide and support you. That’s absolutely true. But you also need to know the person responsible for your success is none other than the one staring you in the mirror.

So what should you do? Find a system with a good track record. Follow it with tenacious discipline. And don’t worry about what everyone else is doing or what the latest strategy is. None of that matters right now.

If you do the work?—?the right kind of work with the right kind of people?—?you will see the results. Works every time.

Digging deeper

To learn more about becoming a full-time writer, check out my free book, The Writer’s Manifesto, which you get when you join my email newsletter?—?plus weekly tips on writing and creativity.

Jeff Goins is the author of four books, including the national bestseller The Art of Work. To get the first two chapters of his book for free plus tips on writing and creativity, sign up for his free newsletter.

Originally published on goinswriter.com.