SPA Girls Podcast – EP88 – What Are Your Core Author Values?
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This week we try to nut out our own personal author values, and try to distill down a mission statement for each of us as authors. We believe that defining your core values as an author will help you make decisions in your author career, keep your focus longer, and keep you sitting down in your chair, writing those books!
We talk about the pros and cons of a mission statement, why Wendy doesn’t like them, and why we think they’re valuable for you as an author. We talk about what Joanna Penn and Susan Kaye Quinn say about mission statements, and go through the process of creating one for Cheryl that means something to her as an author.
Where are you? What stage or you at?
If you’re overwhelmed? Perhaps a mission statement can help filter out the decisions that are most important to you. Often, it is seen as a tool for corporates but is similar for authors.
What are you core aims and goals?
What are your ultimate aims?
What gets your butt in the chair?
Don’t worry about making your mission statement formal. Start with jotting down your thoughts. Play with it until you are happy that it represents you. It should be something snappy – a few sentences or a paragraph.
A mission statement is personal to you. Feel free to keep it to yourself.
Wendy doesn’t get in to this stuff, she hates anything to take herself away from writing. Seeing as how she is a star, we feel that she’s already on the right track. However, she does appreciate that it can help a lot of people.
Joanna Penn’s advice:
Ask yourself what you do? What happens when you sit down to write.
Who do you do it for?
Why are you so different? (Your unique selling point)
Where are you going and what are your goals?
How are you going to get there? Focus on the skills that you have that will get you there.
Discipline? Perseverance?
Susan K Quinn
Your mission statement will change but your fundamentals will stay the same
Drink coffee and make stuff up.
To be a member of a community.
Oprah Winfrey
To be a teacher to encourage my students to be more than they think they can.
Richard Branson
To have fun in my journey in life and learn from my mistakes.
Cheryl’s Mission Statement which we brainstormed:
Writing and sharing quality books about family, love and resilience, I use humor and empathy to help my readers escape to new places.
A little thing for you to do – Patricia McLinn’s workshop idea
Take out 3 pieces of paper and jot down the 3 key reasons why you write.
Don’t belabour it.
Now throw away 1 piece of paper. Happy? Probably not.
Now throw away another piece. It’s hard, but just do it!
You have one piece left, right?
This is the real reason why you write!
