The Game Of LIFE: The Writer’s Edition

(Image Credit: what.you.don’t.see.photography)

For those who don’t get enough from the daily grind of actual life there’s a board game: The Game of Life. You probably think we’re going to tell you we turned it into a bookish edition but this time around, in honor of NaNoWriMo, we turned it into a writer’s edition. So grab your little car, get ready to pick up some peg people in the form of literary agents and publishers (if you’re going the traditional route) and spin that dial…

Some of the spaces you might land on while playing The Game of Life For Writers:

Career spaces

You’ll start here and have to decide what type of writer you want to be: journalist, novelist, non-fiction, blogger… a combination. After the first Career Space anytime you land on one you can change or diversify your writing portfolio.

Job Spaces

You’ll have to decide whether you’ll need a full-time job, part-time job, will be self-employed, or can financially afford to focus on writing full time because someone’s gotta put a roof over your head and food on the table.

Publishing Spaces

The first time you land here means you’ll have to decide whether you’re going the traditional or self-publishing route. Will you be blogging for your own blog or contributing to an established site? Will you be self-publishing your novel or querying agents? You can choose both. After the first Publishing Space, anytime you land on one you’ll have to pay your fellow writers for having read one of their online posts, short stories, or novel.

Traditional/Self-publishing Spaces

If your earlier chosen route was traditional you either have to write a query letter, research literary agents to query, or *gulp* finally send out your query letters to agents. If you went with self-publishing you either have to set up your blog and get to blogging, create an online shop where you’ll be selling your work, or find sites like Amazon that allow you to sell self-published work. Either choice, you gotta work!

Life Spaces

All those days in life where you just weren’t able to write because life got in the way means you lose a turn. *Tears*

Schooling Spaces

Will you be getting a Masters in Creative Writing? Participating in NaNoWriMo? Taking an online course: Iowa’s creative writing Mooc How Writers Write Fiction; Gotham Writing courses? Taking a writing class? Reading a book about the craft of writing: On Writing by Stephen King; The Lies that Tells A Truth by John Dufresne; Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.

Taxes Due Spaces

Yup, writers pay taxes and Uncle Sam is a knocking.

Reading Spaces

If the first thing to being writer is actually writing then the second is reading. So pick a blog post, short story, bookish article, or a novel and get some reading done. The Game of Life for Writers suggests a plate of cookies and your favorite beverage during reading time.

Distraction Spaces

Rather than life getting in the way here you get in your own way and spend an hour petting the dog instead of writing, organize the spices in the kitchen alphabetically, or check every social media account 50 times.

Pay Day Spaces

Yay, you’ve been paid for your writing! Now buy yourself something nice and get back to writing, there’s a whole career to build!