Why do we write? What is it that a writer hopes to gain out of writing? It certainly isn't the money. That's not likely to come soon, if it ever comes at all. It certainly isn't the fame. The reality is that most of us will have our books read by maybe 100 people at the most over the course of our lifetime. It certainly isn't encouragement. We meet so many people who tear us down, tell us we can't, face us with the facts and data that seem to suggest our failure. Yet, in spite of all this, we plug along and we continue to write. Why? What is the compelling force that drives us to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and write in spite of the evidence against us?
I have yet to meet anyone who was good at writing for whom this next statement was not true: books changed our lives. They were our safe place, our refuge, our teachers and guides in an often confusing world. They changed our lives in fundamental ways. I think this urge to write comes from this belief that if books changed our lives, maybe by writing our own book we, too, can make a difference. We can change things for the better in our world. We can add our voices to the dialogue and make ourselves heard above the noise.
Why do I want to help other writers? What about that appeals to me? I think we all have gifts, things that we were born in this life to do. I know I was born to teach people how much God loves them. Writing is one of the ways that I do that, but more importantly by reaching out to the writers around me I can influence the influencers as they say in marketing. I can multiply the potential for impact by impacting those who are going to make a difference. I have a gift for teaching, and a gift for writing, and by helping other writers I combine those two gifts. This is why I want to do what I do - to help writers change the world by changing the hearts of the people who live in it.
I think when you are feeling down and discouraged as a writer and you're facing writer's block that seems like it might as well be Mount Everest for all your hopes of getting past it, or you've struggled and struggled to put into words the idea for a book that you know you have inside of you to no avail, you can start to forget why you write. You can lose sight of the fact that your writing has the power to make a positive difference in the world, and you may not realize that the world really does need you to make that difference. It's a difference that only you can make, too. Nobody else has your words, nobody else has your message. Nobody else has lived the experiences that you have lived.
That's why writers need someone like me. Not to put words in their mouth or tell them things they already know, but to help remind them of their message and how important it is that they share it. If they don't know their message, I can help them find it. If they know it and are having trouble putting it into words, I can help them figure out how to say what needs to be said because that's what I'm good at doing. That's what I was born to do.
Here's a summary of who I help and what I do: I help writers change the world for the better by changing lives. I'm the one to call when you're ready to write the world a better place. There it is. That's my tagline: Call me when you're ready to write the world a better place.
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