Have you ever asked yourself this question and truly answered it?
This is important to define for yourself, the quality of your work. 2020 was a year of chaos, fear, and upheaval. As we begin the new year, it’s the perfect time to let the dust settle and get laser-like focus on why you write and how you’re going to get your words into the world.
It’s not easy to be an aspiring writer. Just tell someone you want to become a successful fiction author and their reaction will be something like:
Laughs awkwardly until they realize you’re serious.
Shows concern about your mental health
Says, “Really? Uhhh… Good luck with that.”
It’s the same look adults gave you when you were six years old and you told them you wanted to be an a pegasus when you grew up.
That’s because writing fiction is a time and energy-intensive pursuit that never guarantees a big material reward.
As a marketing strategist for authors, I see many writers approaching their writing career with a “lottery mindset.” They scribble out a book, feverishly upload it to Amazon, and wait for overnight success.
When they don’t wake up on the bestsellers list, they give up.
This the paradox:
Only by NOT writing for money or fame will you possibly become a successful author because once you begin writing for sales, your words will lose heart.
You must have a bigger reason than to become wealthy and famous. You need to think about who you’re writing for and how you want them to think and feel after reading your work. Either that, or writing must be so satisfying for you that it is its own reward.
Maybe you write because it’s therapeutic, allowing you to express yourself and make meaning of your experiences. Maybe you want to make people laugh and forget their worries. Maybe you just want to scare the hell out of them.
Not only will a writing manifesto help you on the hard days when nothing is working, keeping your mission in mind will inspire you to produce stories that will impact your readers and the world.
You got this!
Create your Writing Manifesto!
Join us for the Ultimate Author Planning Workshop in the Writers’ Mastermind.
Develop your own powerful Writer Manifesto.
Crystalize your vision of what it means to be a successful author.
Reverse engineer a step-by-step plan to your career as a fiction writer.
Avoid wasting time, overwhelm, procrastination, and paralysis.
Do you ever get depressed without knowing what exactly is bothering you? Do you sometimes feel tired, restless, and not sure what to do with yourself? Maybe you find yourself spending too much time talking to your dog and checking your social media. You’re sick of your story and your characters and you don’t know why.
Now think about the last time you had a good chat or laugh
with someone. How long has it been?
Writers have a tendency to isolate themselves. We live inside our heads, but it’s medically proven that loneliness bad for us physically and mentally. It’s also bad for our craft. Staying isolated prevents us from being connected to the world and the people we write about.
Meet someone for coffee or a beer. Plan a dinner party. Call a close family member or friend. See how you feel afterward.
Sometimes we begin writing a story and we think, what the hell is this? What does it all mean?
Don’t stop for a second to think about what you are doing.
Don’t agonize over how to make your character more complex, or what pithy theme you’re trying to illustrate.
Just bang it all out. Scribble it down.
Often our stories are something we are trying into tell ourselves. Sometimes you have to get to the end to realize what it’s all really about.
If you don’t know what it means when you get to the end, don’t panic. Read it through. Read it many times. The ‘why’ of the story will become clear to you.
Open loops are unfinalized tasks, all that ‘stuff’ you gotta do. They are the perfect distraction from writing and can be used to avoid hard work. Open loops are the BFF of procrastination and hog up valuable RAM in your brain that could be used to power your writing.
To get into a creative flow state, you must close the loops. Here are few ways to ensure the background tasks are shut down.
Choose a writing time – Start waking up at 4am to have quiet time to write. What? No, just kidding. For some of us, such a drastic change sets us up for failure. It’s easier to carve out a writing time that already fits into the routine we have. Whatever you choose to do, designate this block and stick to it. After a few weeks of regular practice, your brain will expect to be let loose at this time and be primed to focus.
Make a to-do list every day – Write down every thing, big and small, that you have to do. Most of the time we’re not actually worrying about ‘doing the things.’ We are trying to figure out what are all the things we need to do. Are we missing something? Once you have them all listed, you close that loop. You don’t have to worry about what you’re supposed to be doing or if you’ve forgotten anything.
Prioritize tasks – What absolutely must be done now? What can wait till after your writing time? Put them in order of importance.
Knock ‘em down one at a time – Focus on one item at a time. Try to check off as many items as possible. Each check gives you a sense of accomplishment and closes that tab in your brain.
Plan remaining items – Prioritize and schedule the remaining items for later times or dates. That way you know what you have to do after writing. You don’t have to worry about how you’re going to get it all done. You already have a plan of attack.
Now you’re all set. Sit down and write. Slip into the zone.
Nothing is more paralyzing than self-censoring before the words hit the page. Some part deep within us applies a filter for Mom, Dad, Grandma, our significant other, our boss, our kids, or future kids that we may or may not ever have!
You don’t have to take ownership of your story. It’s not you. It is a distillation of all you’ve seen, heard, and experienced.
You are not your thoughts and feelings. You have your thoughts and feelings. You are not your experiences. You are not your stories. You are a conduit.
Much of your writing may be based in truth, but no one has to know that. Write and let it go like a balloon into the sky. The words will be found. Then the stories belong to your reader.
Don’t worry about the nasties you write. Under the guise of fiction, you can write anything and everything you want. If Mom reads it and is appalled, simply lie. Yes, tell her you made it all up. Deny it to the death. She can’t really prove otherwise.
