Lorna Faith

Clean Fiction Author

5 Ways to Choose the Right Passion for Your Blog

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How do you choose what to write about on your blog?

If you are thinking about starting a blog, or if you’ve already started one, knowing what to write about on your blog, can feel a little like a mystery.

At least that’s how it was for me when I first started blogging three years ago.

It wasn’t until I asked myself what I really love to talk about and learn about, that I finally figured out what topics to blog about.

5 ways to choose

*Photo created with Canva

5 Ways to Choose the Right Passion for Your Blog

Sharing what you know about and love can really bring a ton of happiness to everyday for you. For myself I finally understood this, when I started narrowing what I blog about and focussed on inspiring writers, fiction writing, self-publishing, marketing and how to

At first I thought, blogging about writing and self-publishing had been over done, but I soon realized after learning from successful bloggers that being in something for the long haul, means that you need to love talking about that topic. So that’s what I did and it’s fun to talk about what you love.

So how do you discover your passion? Maybe you’ll uncover some clues in the following questions:

1.You’ll discover your passion in what you love to learn about. You know, those areas of interest and topics that you already lean toward everyday, right down what those are. Sometimes what we love is so familiar to us that we just don’t notice them – at least not at first. For some examples, ask yourself:

  • When I watch videos online – or listen to podcasts – what topics do I most want to learn?
  • When I’m talking with someone, what do I love to talk on and on about?
  • When I stop at the library or go to a bookstore, from which areas do I like to grab books?

When you uncover those topics that you naturally lean toward, those are great clues to find the subject that will never grow old to you. Maybe even five or ten years from now, you’ll still love to learn and have an interest in that topic. This is one of the ways to discover your passion.

2.You’ll discover your passion in your talents and abilities. Think of those things you naturally do well. What are you good at that comes naturally to you and where you’ve noticed that it’s also been helpful to others? That’s an excellent starting point to uncover what possible topics to blog about. Something I’ve done, is to ask two or three people who know me best to share some adjectives and words that describe me. So I’d encourage you to text, email or call three people who know you best and ask them to share three words that describe you – what your strengths are and what makes you unique. You’ll be amazed at how their answers bring a new clarity to you.

3. You’ll discover your passion in past struggles. Most of us have had to climb an up hill battle of some kind. So if you’ve been through a deep struggle or some big obstacles that you’ve had to push through in your life, there’s a passion behind how you came out of that. You have a story that others need to hear. A one-of-a-kind perspective that will help others who are right now dealing with a similar struggle. You have solutions that people will be happy to pay you for. When the messiness of life that you’ve made it through become your message, that’s really when your audience will really connect with you on a much deeper level.

4. You’ll discover your passion as you keep sharing new ideas and discoveries with your readers. I’ve found it really helpful to share the journey I’m walking through as I write about the obstacles I face writing or creating the online class or even now as I’m trying to understand story structure in a much deeper way. You might find that as you keep sharing what you’re learning or new discoveries, that you find greater clarity in what you’re really passionate about.

5. You’ll discover your passion in the topic where you’re willing to do the ‘long haul.’  It’s really helpful to ask yourself, “Can I see myself writing and learning about this subject for the next five to ten years?” If you can, then you’ve most likely hit the nail on the head with the topic your passionate about. If not, keep going through the ways to discover your passion from this list.

As with many things, you need to be willing to go the distance, to really be committed to your passion, before you begin to reach new levels of authority in your niche. Much like writing books, every person who first started a blog, did it when no one knew their name and made a ton of mistakes along the way. It’s okay. Everyone starts there.

Choose what you’re really passionate about, stay focussed everyday and you’ll soon see new clarity and authority come to you as blog about what you love.

I’m curious, have you discovered your passion – what you like to blog about? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

 

*Photo created with Canva

Develop the Story Idea for Your Novel

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“I think the future of Storytelling is: You think of some good characters and you have them do some cool stuff that you can relate to and go through hell and come out the other side of it changed in some positive or negative way. And then it ends.” ~James Cameron

Many writers just finished Storytelling Month…. aka NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo – this bunch of letters that looks like the start of an acrostic – is short for National Novel Writing Month. It’s an entire month(officially in November of every year)that many aspiring novelists use to kick-start an exciting new creative adventure – writing their novel in 30 days.

This idea was started by Chris Baty, who gives really practical steps on how to get it done in No Plot? No Problem! Revised and Expanded Edition: A Low-stress, High-velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days.

I know it sounds impossible. Yet many writers have written their 50,000 words – the goal for NaNoWriMo – in 30 days. Broken down, that’s roughly 1700 words written every single day.

I tried to do this once before, but didn’t get enough words written. At the time I was just happy that I got farther along in my project, which is a worthwhile goal, but I felt disappointed because I didn’t reach a personal goal. However, this year I want to change that.  

Maybe that’s where you’re at too. If so… read on.

I thought I’d do a series of blogposts of what’s worked for me and to pass those tips along to you – so you can go from start to finish in writing your novel. I think it will help you get clearer on your story goals as well as help you write faster.

Let’s start with how to grow your story idea.

Old Typewriter - Donovan Beeson

*Photo Credit By: Donovan Beeson – Creative Commons

How Do You Grow Your Original Story Idea?

Let’s say you have an idea for a story. You’re excited to write share this story with others. What do you do next? How does that become a book people can’t wait to read?

Here‘s a few next steps which will help you expand on your idea:

1. Develop your story idea. Ask lots of questions and don’t be afraid to let your imagination run wild. Write down what comes to the top of your head. Anything goes. Ask questions of your characters – especially the main characters and ask yourself where, when, who, what, why questions as far as story setting(are you building a whole new world?) and the other characters(perhaps villains?) that are involved. Think about the details that would go with this story idea.

2. Write a short summary of what happens in your story. How will you start the story? Jot down ideas of your beginning scene. Don’t worry, you don’t need to have all your questions answered and the plot doesn’t have to be complete. Write around 500 words to get a brief sketch and flow of your story. When you do this you’ll end up getting more ideas as to how the story should go.

3. Choose how you’d like the story to end. Do you want a happy or sad ending? Or maybe you want to have an unexpected twist that keeps the readers guessing. Having an idea of how the story ends, helps give direction as you’re writing. It gives you a goal to shoot for.

The most important thing is to choose a story idea you love. This will naturally flow into a certain type of genre. 

That’s what I’m finding as I’m doing my best to write in one of the genres I love for NaNoWriMo. It flows quicker and the writing goes easier when you’re writing a story you love. 

In the next blogpost, I’ll give some tips and ideas on picking the genre you want to write your story in.

What’s your process to grow your story idea? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

hugs, Lorna

*Photo Credit By: Donovan Beeson – Creative Commons

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

How to Find Your Natural Writing Voice

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“The natural writing process is to write in the 1st person. This is natural – it’s how we tell a story if we’re talking to someone over coffee…” William Zinsser in his Book, On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

I’ve been doing more writing practice lately. I’m digger deeper. I’m learning to find my natural voice. You might be asking, why would I go through all this time and effort to figure this out?

Because intuitively I know that once I find my natural voice, I will have a new freedom to be me.  In all my storytelling. And I really want that… don’t you?

You might be asking, what exactly is your writing voice?

It’s your style. Your unique way of expressing yourself….with all your beliefs and opinions. It’s how you see the world – your worldview.

Your writing voice is what makes you… you.

once I find my natural voice

*Photo Credit By: Lorna Faith

Why do you need find your voice?

This search for your voice is really about who you really are. What you want to say or don’t want to say. And how you’re going to say all of that.

The effort you put into that, makes you more comfortable with your style. It takes awhile to find your unique voice. And until you find it, you might be a little uncomfortable with your unique writing style.

Finding your voice allows you to communicate to people in a way that’s uniquely you. It attracts people to you and to your writing. 

It’s the only real and long-term way to tell your story.

I’ve learned that all it takes is practice.

So I’ve been digging deeper to find my natural writing voice lately.

Here’s an exercise that Les Edgerton mentions in his book Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing. 

He says to take out three sheets of paper and a pen or pencil. Writing the old way, will help free you to get back to your roots. Now, get completely relaxed and comfortable. Now, go back in your mind to when you were a young child(4-6 years old). Write a page describing a really good memory you have from that time. Allow the feelings and emotions to come up and write about them without censoring. Write this description in the vocabulary of that young child. Use words you would have used then. It’s crucial that you do your best to write in the “language” you possessed back then… not the language you use today. 

So I did. Here’s what came of that effort…

Moving Day

I can still smell the dust that floated up to coat my nose that chilly spring day. My little four year old legs slid down from Momma’s soft lap that perched high up in the light blue 1963 Ford car. It seemed like a long ways to the dusty earth below. My stubby hands scraped against jagged rocks as I landed, but any pain I felt was forgotten the moment I looked up. With my jaw hanging open, like the opening of a church door, I stared out at the blanket of brown sprinkled with a little green. The mixture of dull colours and lumpy hills looked like one of my older sisters effort at baking a cake. But at this offering before me I wasn’t worried what I would find under the layers of brown. Instead my eyes widened and happy giggles erupted. I choked on the coat of dust that littered my throat and waited for the coughing to stop before I peered up again. Standing to my feet, I wobbled forward, hoping for a better view of the land that was to be our new home. All this space to run and play was a big change from the small lot and house in town our big family of thirteen had squeezed into. I shivered with anticipation. I wouldn’t forget this adventure or my first face-full of dust. 

I soaked in another big breath. My first smell of freedom.

There was something freeing and so natural as I wrote this in first person, based on memories I had of my childhood. It’s like I experienced a shift from blurry to focussed. My writing went from critical to feeling free to be me.

Go ahead and try this exercise – I think you’ll be amazed by what you discover about you and about your voice. It will be freeing.

There’s other exercises and ideas to help you find your natural writing voice. Next week we’ll work on another exercise to help find your voice.

Have you found your natural writing voice? If that’s something that you’re really wanting to figure out, give these exercises a try… I think you’ll be amazed at the freedom you find in your writing. Let me know if you find these posts and exercises helpful, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

hugs, Lorna

*Photo Credit By: Lorna Faith

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

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