Your voice matters.
Is writing about being a successful writer or is it about communicating a message?
Writers write to inform, guide, challenge, and create. For the purposes of this article, I will talk about one aspect of writing, the area of message, writing that is for the purpose of conveying a message. The non-fiction or fiction writer creates a message to sell an idea or to draw attention to a concept or societal problem. The message evolves over time. Soon it grows and gains a following. Most who have written a book that delivers a message, expect that their book will meet a need, grow a following, and address an area of concern with practical knowledge. Expertise in the field helps grow their “brand,” dispensing and detailing expert advice and knowledge they are able to offer their readership.
However, writing is not only about becoming successful, creating a name for yourself, or building a following. I think not. Those things are part of the deal but not the most important element. I think, quite possibly, we have created a monster by the way we look at publishing these days. Established authors panic when their numbers aren’t up as if their worth as a writer is linked to positive rankings. This concerns me. I sense a desperation in some writer’s blogs as they implore their readers to participate in some activity to help them succeed in a measurable high-volume way. It is starting to become a turn-off. It brings to mind an apt analogy. It is somewhat like a pastor who measures success by the members in attendance, be they low—he’s done poorly, be they high—he’s done well, forgetting that the message is multiplied in the listener and cannot be statistically proven. Some writers may never see the impact of their writing, but future generations may find their nuggets of value, recognized in the truths written long before these author’s became known for their writings.
Message-driven writing is about passion. It is about having something to say that is worth saying, something that the writer believes has merit and value. Their writing has an objective. Writing is communicating big ideas in carefully crafted wordings. Writing is speaking with a musicality endearing to the reader causing them to want more. Writing with substance is to take writing to a level of purposed endeavor which will influence and create something lasting for its intended audience.
I believe if we only write to make money or to be successful then we have missed the point of the greater reason.
If it is only about dollars and cents, writing will be of a temporary quality with little lasting value. Writing which captures ideas to bring them to life by incorporating understanding of human foibles, errors, and triumphs, will endure and become legendary. Cranking out volumes of text only to pay the bills—in itself is not what writing in its pure form is about. The test of time will sift the wheat from the chaff. Time showcases the people who know how to write, spill their guts, and make language speak in ways people can absorb whereby causing the cream to rise to the top. Real writing has something to say that is worth saying, if not for others then at least for one’s self.
Great writers write because their voices refuse to be silent.
The fire burns within them. Some writers did their writing from prison cells where they languished for their beliefs of no compromise or deliverance. Thoughts came to them in the quietness of the hidden place behind walls of seclusion. Yet, their voice did speak. It arose and overcame. It triumphed. There, some of the greatest works ever written, blossomed within the harshness of their crucible. The spirit within would not die nor would they disbelieve in the greater good that could be accomplished if the truth could be released from out of the bowels of their tomb. Some authors’ works speak louder in today’s world than in the day in which they were written: Tolkien, Lewis, Bonhoeffer, Solzhenitsyn, Bunyan, Hannard, The Apostle Paul, Saint John, Julian, Merton, and Chesterton to name a few. These writers had much to say that came out of lives bound to a greater purpose. The world is a better place, richer in dimension because of their contributions.
Passion and writing are like hand in glove, one needs the other to make it work. Writing is the observation of the nuances of language and emotions of life, showing the spirit of the spiritual and evil of the diabolical coming together in an on-going clash of plot and message. It teaches through subliminal message and characterization by skillful development of carefully constructed plots which weave the very essence of life and living.
Writers write like sculptors sculpt. The heart of the writer releases the image through the uniting of their soul with the material at hand. They see the hidden message found in the beauty or distress of the moment. By means of expression with unexpected and unusual clarity, they craft the scene and move the person into it. Their words take us to the place, emotion, belief, or conflict. Our eyes see through their words. They have fulfilled their destiny. The message has been given out and it has been received in. That is where the truth resides and is why the messenger writes.
N. L. Brumbaugh, with something to think about.
