Create a Passion for Your Craft

Novelists are aware they need to have passion to be a storyteller. Maybe you even made a New Year resolution to hold true to your passion, or embrace your passion.

Science and math have calculated ten years and a million words before a novelist creates a novel worth reading, fortunately art defies logic.

News of artistic success often includes that phrase, “follow your passion” which is baloney. Many have passion for art, music, and books; few have the talent to create. Writing; music, art, dance, etc. is often an obsession that takes over our lifestyle choices. Having some talent added to that obsession is what actually justifies striving for artistic success, through years of really hard and thankless work, which is flavored with fun because there is passion.

Handcrafted 2013 by Cynthia Burke of The CopperTail Whale 

Readers are fickle creatures who only read what they want to read, when they want to read it, and they will dither over the cost of the novel, and the investment of their time to read it, when maybe they could be doing something that requires less emotional energy like going to a movie, a concert, or knitting while watching the news. 

Readers have a variety of interests and are busy. Having books to read on their phone, while waiting for anything, is a dream come true. Listening to audio books instead of the news is preferred by others.

A novel has to touch an emotional chord with enough readers to generate buzz. Buzz is the term for being something worth sharing across cyber space, and buzz will launch an unknown into a household name around the globe. There’s no guarantee when or if that will happen. But when it does, readers will add lots of passion to the news.

An author will always have to balance why they write, and what they write, with how it benefits their readers and their own life. Write good books. Maintain a sleek and dynamic website while writing good books. Plan strategic publicity online and in person, for the good books you wrote, and you will build a career as an author. Be aware of who and what your audience will find when they search on your name or book title.

You’ve got the talent because you have completed a novel and are now published.
Your obsession is now being fed by readers who want you to write more!
Challenge yourself to make each novel better than the one before.
Create your stories with passion and your readers will buzz about you for the length of your career.