Craft Your Content - My heart is drenched in wine…

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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

“All organizations start with WHY, but only the great ones keep their WHY clear year after year. Those who forget WHY they were founded show up to the race every day to outdo someone else instead of to outdo themselves.” - Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Elisa’s Thought for the Week

Start with Why is awful advice.

Ok, maybe it isn’t awful advice. And the lesson we take away from Sinek’s book is a worthy one.

But the premise, the exact statement of the title, is terrible.

I say that as a writing coach who has spent hours of time talking with writers and brands about their Why.

Here’s the thing with your Why: it isn’t magic.

People seem to think that if they can just find this magic keystone that unlocks all the inspiration and brilliance in their words, then everything after that will be perfect.

That is, unfortunately, what many people take away from the book and synopses.

But we can’t start with Why in our writing and brands?

Why, you ask? (Ironically or unironically, your choice!)

To understand our Why there has to be someplace else that you start.

In order to have a specific Why (that isn’t some overarching life meaning), you need to have Whats.

If you want to know the Why behind your writing, you need to know what you are writing.

If you want to know the Why behind your manuscript, you need to know what the manuscript is going to be vaguely about.

If you want to know the Why behind your brand, you need to know what the heck your brand is doing in the first place.

See that right there?! FIRST PLACE.

It’s nearly impossible to figure out a Why without having some Whats.

With our rush to find courage and purpose, we hope that a Why will solve all the problems and fill all the holes.

That’s not what a Why does.

A Why is a vision you can hold your decisions against. It is a mission you can push your writing towards. It is a foundation to build your creative craft.

But you still need to figure out the Whats to make that happen.

Otherwise all you are left with is some flowery language of broad platitudes, with no substance to share.

What You Missed on Craft Your Content …

Our articles have the same mission we do — to help you to make your own words even better!

• (From the Archives August 2019) — Delve into the art of storytelling, where creativity and passion come together to weave captivating narratives that leave a lasting impact. CYC Senior Content Editor Chris Angelis gets into the philosophy of writing to help you see the bigger picture behind your craft.​

In Other Reading This Week …

Need more insights and inspiration for your writing and mindset?

• Ira Glass is a huge inspiration for our Why here at CYC, with his interview on The Gap. So I devoured this piece by Nicholas Quah in Vulture, about how Glass just wants to make This American Life a “decent show.”​
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• AI writing is getting lambasted in the press these days. But can we use the tools to help us with our writing? Juliet Dreamhunter has some suggestions we don’t see in most AI guides, with 6 prompts fiction writers can use to learn more about their craft.​
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• It can feel like a silly thing to be sad about, but the death of Twitter hits hard. As the brilliant Geraldine DeRuiter writes on The Everywhereist: “Twitter made it so that we misfit poets were able to have careers that once seemed impossible.”
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• ​Colons and dashes and semicolons…oh my! More like “Oh, when the hell do I use which one?” Philip Kinsher has a thorough-but-usable guide over on BookBaby’s blog.
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• This Writer’s Digest interview with bestselling author Isabella Maldonado breaks down the struggles of writing her current book, and what she did to earn a three-book deal on her first submission.​

Weekly Writing Tip …

A quick chance to learn from the masters.

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” ― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Untranslatable …

Exquisite words from other languages.

Forelsket [for-EL-skeh] (adj.) – From the Danish & Norwegian languages, forelsket is the deep feeling you have when you first start to fall in love with someone. Sorta synonyms: smitten, besotted, enamored, honeymoon period

This Week’s Writing Prompt …

We often do our best thinking when we write.

When was the last time you sat down to really think out and write your Why? (Need some help? Our free Voice & Vision course will get you to your why, and much more, in just 10 days.)

This Week’s Writing Resource …

Why not use the tools at your disposal?

​Libro.fm — Love audiobooks, but want to support your local bookstore? Libro.fm has been helping readers do this for years, and this week they announced that they’ve gone international. They have a great set of Whys to their story as well.

For the Upcoming Week …

Because we all need a good chuckle to start things off right!

This week was an “all the coffee in all the face holes” kind of week, am I right?

‘Til next time! ~ Elisa

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Subject Line: “Don’t Know Why” by Norah Jones