Description:
Nailing down what brings you fulfillment in your writing career takes intentional thought. Answer these three questions to make sure you build a body of work you’ll be proud of and that makes you feel amazing as you write it.
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Links:
Indie Author Alignment: 5-Day Foundation course:www.ffs.media/foundation.
Script:
Knowing your “why” has become a bit of a cliche phrase at this point. “Know your why!” It just means know your reason for doing the thing you’re doing.
But there’s so much more to that. When it comes to building your career as an author, whether you ever hope to go full-time or not, it’s crucial to know the answer to three specific questions or else you are guaranteed to fall victim to the tides and pressures of others and find yourself in an unsatisfied place three years from now with a catalogue of books that don’t really resonate with you.
I work with authors all the time who have achieved amazing things in this industry, but look at those achievements and think, “Why doesn’t this feel like I thought it would?”
The answer, unfortunately, is that not all achievements bring a sense of fulfillment to every author. What fills the belly of one will feel like eating air to another. To take the food metaphor a step further, society pushes us toward particular kinds of achievements, and when we attain them, the praise we get from others is like empty carbs: delicious initially, but lacking in any nutrients to keep us going.
So let’s dive right into the three question you must answer to make sure your career fills you up the right way for the long haul:
The first question is: What do you want your writing to do for you?
If you’re about to say, “Make me money,” I’m gonna stop you there. I’m talking about what do you want it to do for you emotionally? Money is always nice, but it’s not itself a nutrient, only a means to buy the food. And you can use it to buy the right food or the wrong food for you.
We’ll get to money in a little bit, so for now, pretend you have all the money you could want.
Would you still write? I suspect you would. Almost no one gets into writing specifically for the money. We start writing because we get a taste of something from it and we want more.
Here are some possible things that writing might do for you:
-Give you a safe space to explore new ideas
-Help you escape reality
-Make you feel less misunderstood
-Allow you to be other people
-Allow you to work through the problems in your own life without real life consequences
-Express your deep values
-Create the world as you think it should be
There are infinitely more reasons out there, but I wanted to give you an idea of the depth and variety I’m talking about here, and what sort of an answer you’ll need to arrive at when you answer the first question: What do I want writing to do for me?
The second question is equally as important. Writing is a form of communication, and communication requires two parties. So the question is: What do I want my writing to do for others?
If you don’t care about it doing anything for others, then you’re not a writer, you’re someone with a journal. Writers want their writing to have an effect on others. That’s just a fact. So it’s important to separate out and name what you want your reader to get out of your writing. Oftentimes it can be the same thing that you got out of writing it, but it doesn’t have to be.
Here are some examples of what you might your writing to do for other people:
-Open their minds and hearts
-Make them feel less alone
-Make them consider novel ideas
-Give them a good laugh
-Provide the catharsis we don’t usually get in real life
-Provide the happy ending we don’t usually get in real life
-Restore faith in humanity
-Confront their fears
-See things from your point of view
-Inspire them to take action
Again, the list is endless, but if any of those struck a chord with you, start there and keep tweaking until it feels right.
Those two questions are the sum of your purpose as a writer: what you want to get from it, and what you want to give. Having that clear sense of purpose is crucial on those days when you don’t want to write or your manuscript has become so knotty that you feel like giving it up all together.
Purpose is also my favorite criteria for deciding what opportunities to seize and which to let go. Because there will be a lot of opportunities coming your way, from possible collaborations to hot new subgenres cropping up to promotion opportunities or interviews. It’s easy, especially with all an indie author has to do, to end up with more work than you can realistically manage. Something has to give. Let it be everything that doesn’t support your purpose for writing in the first place. Remember: if you cared about money more than your purpose, you would have picked a different career.
Temptations for quick cash will always be there, and the wise and centered writers aren’t lured off their path by such things.
And now we reach the third and final question: What do you want your money to do for you?
I’m not talking about purchases here, I’m talking again about something deeper. When you think about having “enough money” (and getting real with yourself about how much actually constitutes “enough” is a whole other discussion), what mental and emotional benefits would come from that?
To be clear, we’re not talking ego. Ego says things like, “When I have X dollars, I’ll be…
...better than other people.
...worthy of love.
...attractive.
...a real man.
...a strong woman.
And so forth.
What I’m talking about looks more like this:
“When I have enough money, I’ll…
...be able to live my life without sacrificing my values.
...be able to offer help to those who need it.
...be able to help others reach their full potential.
...be able to be my authentic self all the time.
...be able to pursue my deepest interests.
...be able to keep me and my family safe and secure.
...be able to have more adventures.
...be able to have control over my own life.
...be able to take my time savoring life.
When people pursue money relentlessly, it always signals to me that they never stopped to ask themself what they truly want money to do for them. Because it doesn’t take nearly as much as you might think it will to be able to achieve any of the ideas I just listed off. I’ve seen people achieve it on 30k a year, and I’ve seen people achieve it on 300k a year. If you think it will take $1,000,000 a year before you feel able to pursue your deep interests or help those you love who need it, then you’re probably not being honest with yourself. Or you surround yourself with some serious mooches.
The thing is, when your career satisfies those desires that motivate you at a core level, you don’t feel nearly as much need to compensate by making a ton of money to blow on things that will numb the desire rather than heathfully fulfill it. I could go back to the food metaphor, but I think you probably understand what I’m saying at this point without it.
I encourage you to spend fifteen minutes today asking yourself the three questions: What do I want my writing to do for me? What do I want my writing to do for others? And what do I truly want money to do for me?
This is fifteen minutes that will save you a world of hurt down the line, trust me.
Until next time, happy writing.