Whether you are writing a book, a blog post, or an article, four things need to be at the center of your writing: purpose, mission, passion, and impact. Having these four components at the forefront of your mind while you write will ensure you are putting out your best work.
Purpose
It is imperative as a writer that you instill a sense of purpose into your work. There must always be a reason behind your writing. Regardless of what you are writing, if you are writing with a purpose in mind, it will show and be picked up by the audience you are writing for. The opposite also holds true. Without a strong purpose or reason for writing on a certain topic, your writing will be lacking, and could miss the mark in connecting with your readers.
Writing a book is a long process that takes time and considerable work. Depending on how fast you are able to write and how fleshed out the outline for your book is, it can take anywhere from a few months to a few years to finish your manuscript. This is where having a strong purpose helps you push through the lows of writing. Dwelling on much you have left to write, or believing that months of writing are still ahead, it can be overwhelming. This can lead to rushing your writing process and potentially botching it. Having a strong purpose and remembering the original reasons for writing can help you push through those moments of overwhelm, and remind you why you are writing in the first place.
Mission
Similar to purpose, there needs to be a central mission to your writing. Your purpose is the reason why you are writing what you are writing. Your mission is what you hope your writing will accomplish. For example, if you are sharing your experiences of your childhood to include in a memoir, the purpose of including those details is that you want to explore your past and how it shaped you. But the mission of your book is ultimately to get someone else to relate and understand. To figure out the mission of your writing, consider who the audience is that you are writing for, and what kind of a difference will your book make in their life when they read your book. It could be a lesson that you share that helps your reader make sense of something happening in their own life. Having a mission for your book will help you decide what to include in your writing.
Passion
Simply put, if you don’t care about what you are writing about, then your writing will suffer. If you’re working on a deadline or are writing about a subject that you just want to get out of the way, your writing may be rushed or not be as detailed as it could be. This is especially true when you are writing a book. It’s a process that can take months to years and rushing through the process because you aren’t passionate about it can lead to poor sections and not connecting with your audience. Writing about something that you care about or something that you are passionate about will make sure that you finish your writing and that the core message that you want to share is fleshed out and able to be understood by your audience.
Impact
Regardless of what you are writing about or the medium of your writing, for any writing that you put out into the public eye, your readers will be impacted by your work. Your audience is reading your writing for a reason and will leave learning something new, getting a deeper understanding about a subject. Awareness of the impact or impression that you want the reader to walk away with will help you to formulate your writing in a way that meets that goal. Perhaps in your book you want to talk about your experiences in a work environment, with the main takeaway being to encourage your reader to stand up for themselves in certain situations. You want to use these experiences to offer up guidance for the reader, with the intention that when they encounter a similar situation, your book will have impacted their reaction.
Similar to the other components that are listed here, knowing the community or audience that you want to impact will help you push through the low points of writing. There may be times of self doubt about your writing or a loss of interest in a topic that you are writing about. Knowing the people that will be impacted through your writing or knowing that what your writing about is something that needs to be talked about in your community will help you push through those low points and get your writing finished.
If you have been stuck in your writing and going through the author blues click here to learn about the three people you need to help you push those low points. If you have been on the fence about an idea for a book you’ve had but aren’t sure where to start, contact us today!
