To celebrate the eighth day of the Daughter Am I blog tour, I am treating myself to a guest here on Bertram’s Blog. That means one less post I have to write. Oh, joy! While Claire Collins is guesting here, I will be at her blog talking about How Best to Procrastinate. When you get a moment, please visit Claire’s Blog and join in the fun.
Claire Collins is the author of Images of Betrayal and Fate and Destiny, both published by Second Wind Publishing. Claire says:
Welcome to the Business of Writing!
Wait! Don’t go anywhere. I’m not going to take your favorite hobby and turn it into work. Or maybe I am . . .
It depends on what you want to do with your writing. Are you writing as an outlet? Do you write to relieve stress? Maybe you keep a personal journal and write to document your life. Perhaps you write to shut up the voices in your head that scream until you tell their story. Some of you may already be highly successful authors or journalists.
No matter why you write, or where you are in your writing, at some point, you may want to adjust your mindset to look at writing as a business. When that first royalty check rolls in, you will be self-employed as a sole proprietor. To help you think of your writing as a business, I suggest you develop a mission statement for your writing.
A mission statement is defined as: a formal short written statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a sense of direction, and guide decision-making. It provides “the framework or context within which the company’s strategies are formulated.”
That’s pretty stiff. Simply put, a mission statement is a summary of how the company will conduct business and the purpose of the business.
Create a mission statement for yourself as an author, for your works of writing, or for your type of writing. If you aren’t an author or writer, create a personal mission statement. I give you permission to use your creative ingenuity to draft your mission statement.
I’ll even create one for myself to give you an idea. Oh, and don’t forget: Have fun!
Claire Collins: author – Mission Statement
“It is my mission as an author to weave tales that draw readers down an interesting path with twists and turns. I will entertain, educate, and create emotion with my words.”
Stop by Second Wind Publishing for a free ebook sampler or two. One sampler includes the first chapters of all Second Wind’s romances, the other sampler includes the first chapters of all Second Wind’s mystery, adventure, maitstream novels. The first chapter of A Spark of Heavenly, More Deaths Than One, and Daughter Am I are in the Mystery Sampler. The first chapter of Images of Betrayal and Fate and Destiny are in the Romance Sampler.
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Bertram's Blog 
October 25, 2009 at 12:09 am
Pat, Thanks for letting me come play in your blogland for awhile. I want to see your mission statement! I know you can come up with one and show your readers and fellow authors how to create a great statement.
October 25, 2009 at 12:15 am
Homework? You’re giving me homework, Claire?
Okay, how’s this: “It is my mission to become so well-known that a traditional publisher will offer me an obscenely large advance. I will turn down the advance because I’d like to show that there is value in being published by a small independent publisher, and because the resulting publicity could be worth more than the publishing contract.”
October 25, 2009 at 12:47 am
That’s one hellova mission! I like it!
October 25, 2009 at 12:54 am
You notice that my mission statement mentions nothing about writing?
October 25, 2009 at 1:26 am
I did notice, but I wasn’t gonna sell you out like that. Thanks for doing it for me!
I left the rules pretty lax with plenty of room for creative responses. I’m more than happy to sit back and watch you go viral!
October 25, 2009 at 1:29 am
The real question is how does one go viral. Luck, I imagine.
October 25, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I think luck has a lot to do with it. If I had the magic key, I’d share.
October 25, 2009 at 6:17 am
Good stuff Claire. I’ll have to come up with a mission statement of my own. Something like, “It is my mission to make a third of my readers cry with hysterical laughter, make a third want to find me and kill me, and make a third utterly dumbfounded. If you follow me for two weeks, you will fall into all three categories.”
-Does that sound about right?
October 25, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Scott, Your mission statement is perfect for you! I think you should post it permanantly on your page. Thanks for coming by and visiting me at Pat’s place.
October 25, 2009 at 11:39 am
“Welcome to the Business of Writing!
Wait! Don’t go anywhere. I’m not going to take your favorite hobby and turn it into work. Or maybe I am . . . ”
I sorta posted about this today. What I failed to mention (or think about) is that writing for kids presents a different dilemma – Kids don’t typically follow blogs or listen to author interviews. I doubt that any care about reviews or websites. Book signings work, ‘specially living in a tourist town where kids visit for school trips. Hmmm…. tough one.
Thanks Claire for the post – My Sunday afternoon is now ruined. (Just kidding.)
October 25, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Hi Dave! Now you’re going to be thinking about this all day. Your mission will have to be even more creative. Something like:
“My mission is to spread the word about my books to the appropriate audience and book buyers, whether they be parents or children, in a manner that is appealing to the target audience.”
For example, make comments and leave a link back to your page on websites about surfing, boats, and anything to do with halloween to pull in the zombies, ghosts, and pirates!
October 25, 2009 at 5:09 pm
It is my mission to write books anyone can read. To make characters people love, hate and hope for respectively. To create a picture in the reader’s mind that is unforgettable. And to actually enjoy the success once I have it.
October 25, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I think that’s a great mission. now create the steps you will follow to achieve success. What do you mean you didn’t know there was additonal homework? 😉
October 25, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Whew! For a minute there I thought you were talking to me.
October 25, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Do you need more homework, Pat? I have a list in my to-do folder…
October 25, 2009 at 10:33 pm
I have plenty in my own to-do folder. Maybe we should do a to-do exchange to go along with our blog exchange!
October 25, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Farmer Brown’s Mission Statement:
“Kill that @#$%*& rooster!”
October 25, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Then I guess your mission is to stay away from Farmer Brown?
November 2, 2009 at 11:25 pm
No! My mission is to irritate Farmer Brown as much as I can, in effort to cause cardiac arrest, then the slaughtering of my people will stop. Let us chant….
October 25, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Well, well, well, look what Pat has dragged up, Procrastinating Claire. Hmm, days, even weeks of anticipating a new blog entry over at Claire’s blog often proves fruitless, so imagine my surprise to find her twiddling her thumbs here. Pat, enjoy it while it lasts, this maybe the first and last you hear from Claire! And besides I’ve got her hitting my misbehaving loons over the head with blunt instruments (that should keep her busy most of the week!).
October 25, 2009 at 11:17 pm
frigginloon, I am honored that Claire deigned to visit my blog. I think.
October 26, 2009 at 12:55 am
Talk to me in a few days 🙂 , then you will be whistling a very different tune my friend. Just talk to her baby sis (the adopted one) and she will fill you in on the Molly Ringwald obsession for starters !!!
http://suzettevaughn.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/shes-my-sister-no-matter-who-she-looks-like/
October 26, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Wow. I’m getting abused and tortured on two blogs! That’s love. Thanks Loon!
October 27, 2009 at 6:21 am
Pleasure….hmm, note day two and only one blog entry 😦 . Living up to your reputation I see 🙂
October 26, 2009 at 1:11 am
I LOATHE mission statements, they tell the bleeding obvious in a way that makes the reader fell stupid.
So, mine is;
“To cobble together an eclectic mix of fiction that I have enjoyed composing and that I hope somebody else will enjoy reading. If not, tough luck, it’s mine and you can go do your own if you think you can do any better. And if I achieve fame and fortune I will be utterly fecking gobsmacked!”
dave
PS I hope that fecking is permitted here Pat?
October 26, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Dave. Your mission statement doesn’t tell the obvious, nor does it make me feel stupid. However, what if you make your mission “to acheive fame and fortune”?
October 27, 2009 at 1:09 am
We do the national lottery each time, so that’s a bid for fortune.
Fame? You don’t mean ‘be a celeb?’ I have had a couple of very minor doses of small scale fame and can live on those memories, thanks.
As for you published authors, well, you’ve achieved both, surely?
dave
October 26, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Hmm. Food for thought. Off to find chocolate. Wonder how I can work that into a mission statement.
October 26, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Seems to me as if chocolate is a mission statement. Also a destination.
October 26, 2009 at 9:54 pm
I concur. The mission statement here is “to find chocolate”. I think that’s a mission statement I will also adopt for myself!
October 26, 2009 at 4:48 pm
whoa, there’s fecking going on here? hmm… i don’t know if i should stay but strangely i’m feeling like i want to.
October 26, 2009 at 9:55 pm
A little fecking goes a long way.
October 27, 2009 at 1:10 am
Trust me to lower the tone…
October 30, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Mission Statement:
Put a man on Mars within the next century. Or rather a succession of men (and possibly women) to be decided in a very arbitrary manner.
First up, that guy who drove across three lanes to the exit ramp, forcing me to stop texting and slam on the brakes for a half-second or so. Because of that, the guy/girl everyone hates won this season’s “American Idol.”
Next, that guy behind the counter at the bowling alley. I really don’t think he’s spraying down all the shoes but I haven’t been able to not catch him doing it. I have, however, been escorted from the premises several times. In my own shoes.
At this point, that’s all I have.
I feel these two people would be best suited to a life in an oxygen-free environment several million miles away from me. Their qualifications are their rampant jackassery and lack of pride in their work.
To sum up: A minimum of two men on Mars within the next century. As I will be unable to attend this event due to my endless vindictive listmaking and conspiracy theorizing, I would like to have a 24-hour camera set up, both at my blogging compound and at the launch site. I will give the countdown using my best “crackly radio” voice, including imitating the burst of static at the end of every transmission.
[Quite obviously, my mission is to entertain with the sub-missions of occasional ranting and pushing musical buttons. How this would somehow turn into a “monetized” experience, I have no idea.
Perhaps a kindly millionaire will stumble across the site and not be immediately chased away by my constant stream of obscenities and refusal to follow the 300-350 word limit, as recommended by successful bloggers everywhere.]
October 30, 2009 at 9:55 pm
If you’re collecting names, there are a few people I’d like to add to the list.
October 31, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Go ahead and throw them on the list, Pat. I’m trying to get Aeroflot to build the spacecraft, so we’re looking to seat nearly 500 miscreants with nominal safety.
October 31, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Well, for one, there was the woman in the 10 items or fewer lane at the grocery store today. She had eleven items!!! Even worse, she wrote a check but didn’t bother to dig for her checkbook until after her eleven items were rung up.
October 31, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I’ll have to work on one of those damned mission statements.
Something like “it is my mission as a writer and occasional senior eye candy to root out communism, expose the evils of young people and promote the values and ethics of an America circa 1957.”
Thanks Claire & Pat
October 31, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Sounds like an admirable mission, especially since the rest of the world is busily trying to eradicate those very same values and ethics.