Are You Empowered?

ARE YOU EMPOWERED?
(From FundsforWriters, May 3, 2010)


If you have to think about that answer, you aren't quite there. As a writer, you have empowerment at your fingertips. Empowerment coats your life. The sooner you recognize this dynamic force and embrace it, the sooner you make a difference.

As the Creator

As a writer, you determine how deep you want to dig, how intensely you edit or how remarkable you pen your prose. Ever said this? "I'll never expect to write like Jodi Picoult, Stephen King, --insert author--." My bet is that you thought something more on the line of, "I'll never BE like --insert author."

We often envision these authors in terms of their success or public acclaim instead of the particulars of their writing talent. Those authors empowered themselves to write well through time, study, practice and emotional investment. When you decide that your writing development is equivalent to three meals a day or finding the perfect mate, you empower yourself to bust loose and create.

As the Promoter

Does your gut burn with the desire to put your stories in every reader's hands? Do you ponder all angles of reading potential customers? Do you lie awake at night designing yet another campaign to advertise your new release - redesign your blog?

Writers moan and groan about promotion, but the fact is that the savvy, diligent, even excited marketers make the sales. If you move into your promotional duties tentatively, dipping your toe in the waters of the Internet instead of diving in head first and stroking through that water toward a gold medal, you fall shorter than you are capable of achieving. Promotion is less about luck and more about empowering yourself to feel
explosive in informing the world about your work.

The Reader

Your work should empower a reader. Whether your beautiful turn-of-phrase leaves an indelible mark on his mind or your promotional campaign makes him eager to jump on your train, your efforts make a reader feel empowered to belong to your entourage. As you write, as you market your work, wonder how your effort entices readers to feel good about you and your stories.

It's not a trick thing. It's a smart ability to connect with readers. Every entrepreneur seeks that conduit between the company or the product with the consumer. Sometimes it's savvy advertising, snappy jingles or sharp humor. At other times it's pure quality of the item being sold. Then again, a fad can materialize, as the seller taps a vein in the public's eye that leads to huge success. The bottom line is that your reader needs to feel fulfilled and empowered once exposed to you or your work product.

Allow yourself to cut loose, take the leap, or dare whether it's in your writing, promotion or mastering a fan base. The spark is there, hiding, waiting for you to fan it into a flame.