Writers--Pump Up Your Passion

The Bill Snyder Family Stadium

Manhattan, Kansas

This is where Ken and I will be tomorrow afternoon/evening. We're diehard K-State football fans and have been for 40 years. We were fans when K-State was dubbed the worst college football team in the nation and we've continued right on through the glory years with Coach Snyder. College football fans are passionate in their support for their team. When our team wins, we're ecstatic. When they lose, we grumble but still support them. They're ours! We're fervent in our feelings for our team.

Writers, too, should be passionate about their craft. If you have no passion, maybe you should reconsider being a part of the writing world. You can acquire the skills needed to be a writer, but that's not enough. You have to have spirit. you need to be fired up about what you're writing. You need to pump up the passion. 

Easy enough to say. Right? But how do you become one who writes with passion? First, I believe you must care about your topic. I can research a topic and write 10 paragraphs giving the facts, but it's going to be a cold, factual piece. If I truly care about the topic, I will add more to the article to let the reader see an undercurrent of caring. You don't need to state boldly I care! somewhere in your article, but you do need to let the reader feel that you care. 

Many fiction writers base their made-up stories on something that has touched them or something they care about in real life. If so, their passion will come through in the story. 

Another way to increase your own passion for writing is to let loose of your emotions. We're often too quick to cover up our real feelings on a face to face basis. When you write, you can and should let your emotions rise to the top like cream in the old milk bottles. It will be the richest part of your writing if you can do that. In reading critiques made in my online writers group, many times I've noted that the critiquer will tell the writer that the story is basically good, but it's more like a blow by blow report; they go on to say that there is no emotion coming through. Let the reader know how you feel.  

You also need to love what you do. If you hate writing, there won't be much passion involved. It's a job and that's all. No one can instill that love for writing in you. It has to come from within yourself. 

Football players and their fans have goals to meet to become winners. Each goal met is one more step toward ultimate success. Players must be passionate about the game and fans must support with passion. If they don't, it's just another game, nothing special. In our writing world, it's no different. We set our own goals and have a better chance at reaching them if we strive toward them with passion. The support of our readers pushes us into pursuing those goals with passion, too. 

Enjoy this Labor Day weekend and jump back into your writing world on Tuesday. Write because you love it and your readers will sense it.