Writers tend to simply write without much conscious please assess yourself forethought. Many of us are not even conscious why we write what we write or why we focus on what we focus on in our writing career.
Somehow writers just haphazardly decide what to write about and then they start writing. But as we go along, we tend to abandon the project because our interest vanes and we become bored with the whole endeavour.
To be most productive, I believe that our values must lead the way for our writing. That way we could be true to ourselves and to our readers. But what is more, we will also be very successful and productive because when we work on things we truly love and that truly resonates with us, we will be motivated to write the manuscript until it is done.
But what is more, we will want to share our manuscript with the world, because we will believe that what we are writing about is truly something that others want to know about. So, there will not be any lost manuscripts that we file away that will never see the light of day.
If you would like this wonderful feeling of self-confidence and contentment to be yours in your writing career, you have to make sure that you write from your values and deeply held beliefs.
But how do you do that?
Here are a few things to consider:
1. Be true to yourself
Many writers have a hard time to be true to themselves. This may be because there is so much out there bombarding for our attention. We want to please other writers, publishers, friends, editors, and so on.
So, your mind is moved into so many different directions. How do you know for sure which is YOUR OWN direction?
Being true to yourself means living and writing according to your values. The difficulty with doing this is that most of us don't even know what our values are. We think we do but we never really sit down and do a self-exploration that is true and authentic.
Instead, we just proceed on the basis of surface values that we have emulated from others in some way.
It seems easier to do that than to really try to zero in on what we would like to write about and value so much that we will be propelled to come and write every day.
So, what are you doing now that you know without question is right for you? Are you writing about topics that you truly care about? Are you passionate about what you are writing about?
If you answered these questions in the negative, maybe it is time to do an honest self-assessment of your values and what matters most to you.
2. Determine what your beliefs and values truly are
For most writers, our beliefs and values are hidden. We may want to hide from them because we are ashamed of some of our values or at least we don't want to make them prominent to others.
What we have to realize before we start is that there are parts of each of our psyches that we want to hide. That is a given. But that doesn't mean that you have to hide from it though.
One sure fire way to determine what your values are is by taking a self-inventory.
Here are the questions to ask yourself:
- What are your beliefs?
- What do you value?
- What do you like the most?
- What do you hate the most?
- What are your hobbies?
- What makes you cry?
- What makes you angry?
- What makes you ecstatic?
- What do you cherish?
- What makes you cringe?
- What inspires you to be your best?
By honestly answering these questions in your success journal, you will be doing a self-examination of your beliefs and values and what you hold dear.
Then once you determine what your beliefs and values are, please assess yourself write from them to be your best and most authentic.
Irene S. Roth writes for teens, tweens, and kids about self-empowerment. She is the author of over thirty-five books and over five hundred online articles. She also has four hundred and sixty published book reviews both online and in print. For more writing tips, please visit her website at