What Do You Want? By Carol Malone

Today we welcome Author Carol Malone as she asks the question, what do you want as writers. Enjoy!

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What do you want? 

What do all writers want? We want to leave a legacy and influence others. We want recognition. We want to get our books published. And we want to sell a zillion copies of our books. Ca-Ching!

I was asked recently why I write. I had to stop and think about the question. After awhile I came to the conclusion the better questions would be, “What do I want? And when I get what I want, how will I feel?” My mentor, Beth Barany with her her NLP training offered me special insight.1

Beth’s questions were tough to answer. I assured myself, the answers were:  I want to write and I want to be recognized with all the attendant rewards. Then I want to feel hunky dunky. But as I examined my wants and dug deeper, I got to the emotional level, to the true why. Have you ever asked yourself why you write day after day when you’re not sure it’s worth the effort? Me, too. Let me share my discovery with you.

©     I write because I have too. No, nobody’s holding a gun to my head, telling me to write or die. I feel compelled to get the stories out my head, the same stories I’ve been making up all my life and write them down to share with the world.

©     I write to achieve deeper feelings:  happiness, satisfaction, pleasure, relief, gratification, contentment, clarity, elation, self-approval, self-actualization, exhilaration, and peace.

©     I write to feel grounded, focused and goal driven. I’ve never been a goal setter, just living life on the fly. But writing requires commitment and desires which coalesce in the written word. If I don’t stay on track, then I don’t feel good about myself. “I want to find my soul in my goals,” as the “Desire Map” author Danielle LaPorte advises.2

©     I write in behalf of my characters. They want their stories told to the world and use me as their conduit. Like the Greek Muses, I often call for inspiration from mine.

©     I write for recognition. I want people to recognize me for my abilities and talents.

©     I write because there is nothing like the feeling of exultation that comes with proclaiming that I’m “an author”, or being able to tell people, “Say, I just wrote and published a book. What do you think about that?”

©     I write to achieve success. And no, it’s not haughtiness, but confidence, triumph; I don’t mean how the world describes success. At least not completely. I want a sense of self-success, what I define as my victory. My realization might never be something accounted for in dollars coming in from sales of my books, which is nice, but not necessary for me to feel successful.

©     I write because I want to change people’s lives, if I can. And I don’t mean I want my readers to go dig up an elvish sword and go hunt down some obnoxious dragon. Maybe what I’ve written will only give my readers a story to remove them from the day-to-day exhaustion to a peaceful escape for a moment.

©     I write to thrash out my thoughts and desires, to express the humor in my life’s experiences.

©     I write to build my self-esteem. Even if I write junk, I’ve written it and in that, I am successful in my mind. Even if nobody reads my works, I realized I don’t write for other people all the time. Some writing is just for me.

©     I write because I’m happier and more fulfilled when I’m writing than when I’m not. Reconciling bank statements didn’t make me this happy, although it did help pay bills.

©     And yes, Virginia, I do write because I’d love to make money by doing the thing which brings me the most joy, which calls forth my inner passion. Sir Ken Robinson has written about self-fulfillment coming from “merging our natural gifts with our personal passion.”3 When you love what you do and do what you love, this is true passion.

I hope you’ll take the time to delve deep into your reasons for filling the world with more books. There’s no right or wrong answers, there’s just the reward for finding more joy in your journey. So I’m asking you, Why do you write?

1. Those self-discovery questions come from my friends and mentor, Beth Barany. http://bethbarany.com/ She gained this experience through her NLP, Neuro-linguistic programming, http://bit.ly/1c8gAGj

2. Danielle LaPonte teaches us to be clear about our feelings before we lay out designs for our goals. http://www.daniellelaporte.com/

3. Sir Ken Robinson wrote the book, “The Element,” Do what you love – love what you do. http://sirkenrobinson.com/

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Carol Malone successfully combines her three passions – writing, sports, and romance and became the very first woman to climb into the boxing ring in the male dominated stories of Fight Card. Her eBook “Ladies Night,” is a mash-up of happily ever after and kick-in-the-pants, fist-pounding action.

If not hammering out new tales that entice her readers to scramble into a front row seat for thrilling tales of physical endurance and tender passion, Carol’s reading, watching sports on TV, or hanging with her fanatical “end-of-the-world” author husband on the cool coast of California. To talk to Carol about sports and amour or to learn about her latest book releases, visit Carol on her website:www.carolmalone.net.