A few years ago, I worked with a client who was writing about leadership from the heart versus the head. Unfortunately, his first draft was uninspired, dry, and boring. So on our coaching call, I asked, “Ed, what are you writing about?”
He replied, “Leadership from the heart, not the head.”
I asked him, “And where do you think you are writing from?”
There was a long pause, and he finally said, “From the head.”
I told him to go back to the writing, and this time, to use paper and pen instead of his computer and describe the story as if he were talking with a friend, and not try to explain it, just paint a picture of the scene, characters, and their emotions.
He agreed to try again, and another draft arrived the following week. I started to read it and said to myself, “He’s got it! He understood what I was saying, and he’s writing his story from the heart.”
About three pages into the draft, the writing shifted. I asked him, “What were you doing on page three when you went from the story into an explanation?” He laughed and said I’d busted him. He had stopped to “think” and decided he needed to refer to a file about a client. The writing tone changed from one of storytelling to one of explanation. And I, as a reader, lost interest.
You will be writing from your own experience and most likely from the process you are currently experiencing. To become a truly great writer, you must learn to trust that experience and be excited to share it in your writing.
The purpose of spiritual, personal development, or transformational writing is to help others find meaning in their lives. To do that, a writer records what they see in a way that transforms the reader; this requires that the writer be willing to explore and reveal the depths of their own transformation. That’s why I always tell my authors that what you write will unveil your inner unfolding and expansion, sometimes at the same time you are writing it!
A true writer is driven to put their experience on paper. What holds the reader is enthusiasm, emotions, how it changed your life – what made you want to write in the first place. The source of all of what you convey through your writing is your connection to spirit, to your God, no matter how that appears for you in your life.
The words you write come through your mind, but they originate in your heart. This heart center becomes the channel through which your source, your God, your spirit inspires you to share your messages. One of my writers referred to it as becoming the flute that allows the breath of spirit to flow through from the heart to the paper.
When you understand how to allow yourself to become the vessel, you will be guided by a force that will take you on journeys into the depths of your imagination. The key is learning how to step out of your ego-brain and tap into that heart-centered source. When you can consistently do that, you will become a powerful writer.