MOMENTUM

It's easy to get side tracked when you're busy and lose a little momentum. It's all too easy to focus on paid work to make sure you have enough money coming in to pay the bills and you can forget to move forward, especially if you're busy.

Momentum is vitally important for any writer. If you become too engrossed in what you're doing at the time and forget to look forward, when your current work is done you'll find yourself with nothing to move on to. You don't want to have to start from scratch again. So to combat this you should always be writing something new. You should always be entering competitions. You should always be making new and interesting contacts. You should always be looking out for new writing opportunities. No matter how busy you are and how little time you may think you have. Make the time and keep up that momentum.

Inevitably there will always be work and collaborations that don't pay and it's frustrating sometimes to spend time on these when you know you really should be concentrating on getting paid to write. But all writing work, paid and unpaid, is part of a big jigsaw, of getting your name out there, forging relationships and ensuring your career has longevity.

I find myself at a point where some possible paid work hasn't materialised. It's a bummer to be sure, but if I hadn't been continually looking for work and applying for stuff I might have been worried. I'm not though. I make more opportunities for myself every day and although some projects don't work out I know others will.

As Limp Bizkit once said roughly a decade ago..."Keep rollin' rollin' rollin'."