Friday, August 10, 2012

What's the Mission of Your Book? Getting to the Core of Your Story--through Your Own Uniqueness as a Creative Person

Marcia Ballinger, new author of a nonfiction book called The 20-Minute Networking Meeting, had the goal to assist executives who were in job transition.  Marcia worked with me on her manuscript and told me she'd been in the recruiting industry for many years.

Marcia's reason to write this book?  She said, "I felt that I had something new and helpful to offer this audience.  I wanted to get my message out on a larger scale than I could on a person-by-person basis.  Also, it was a personal ambition to write a book."

Strong reasons--similar to how most of us begin the book journey.   
    
And it's good practice to think about these reasons in the early stages of book writing, because we will need them later, when the going gets a bit tougher and we try to remember why we're writing in the first place!

So what's your purpose for writing?  Do you have a longing to share a story, to make the voices in your head go away (fiction writers!), to help others smooth out their lives or manifest their dreams?  What's the passion behind your efforts?

In my classes, and in my book, I ask these questions early on.  I encourage writers to spend time with them to gather fuel now, while there's plenty of it.  Find that feeling that can't be ignored:  the one that tells you that you have to write this story.  

Then the book takes over--and all bets are off!