Intent and Writing Success

Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares writers’ resources on her award-winning blog Sharing with Writers

Contributed by Karen Cioffi

 To know your intent is crucial to writing success. But what exactly does this mean?

According to Merriam-Webster, intent is an aim, a clear and “formulated or planned intention.” It is a purpose, “the act or fact of intending.”

Intent is a necessary factor on any path to success, including your path to writing success. You need to know what you want, what you’re striving for. And that knowledge has to be clearly defined.

An unclear destination or goal is similar to being on a path with low-hanging branches, an assortment of rocks that hinder your forward movement, uneven and rugged terrain, and even logs strewn across the road; you get the idea.

You step over the debris and look around or through the branches; you don’t have a clear view of where you’re going.

A clear-cut goal is akin to walking on a smooth and clear path. No goal-related obstacles hinder your forward momentum or vision.

But let me add to the sentence above: while intent is crucial it’s an active and passionate pursuit of your intent that will actually allow you to achieve success. 

While the intent is there, if you don’t actively take the needed steps to get from A to B, walk the walk rather than just talk the talk, you’ll never reach your goal.

In order to realize your intent, it would be beneficial for you to create a list of questions and statements outlining its specifics.

A few questions you might include are:

- What is your ultimate success goal?
- What does the obtainment of your goal mean?
- After picturing it, what does success look like to you?
- How will you reach your goal?

So, how would you answer these questions?

As a children’s writer, your goal may be to write for one or two major magazines. Or you may want to be published in several smaller magazines. Possibly you want to author a book a year and have them published by traditional publishing houses. On the flip side, you may want to self-publish your own books at a faster pace.

Maybe to you, success is to make a comfortable living, or you may be very happy with simply supplementing your income. Maybe you want to be a professional, sought-after ghostwriter or editor. Maybe you want to be a coach, a speaker, offer workshops, or present webinars. These are some of the potential goals for a writer.

Whatever your vision of success is, you need to see it clearly, write it down (it’d be a good idea to also create a vision board), and take the necessary steps to get you where you want to be.

If you find you have a realistic success vision and are taking the necessary steps to achieve your envisioned intent, at least you think you are, but you still can’t seem to reach the goal, then perhaps your efforts aren’t narrowly focused enough. Maybe your success vision is too broad.

Wanting to be a writer is a noble endeavor, but it’s a very broad target. There are so many niches within the writing arena that if you don’t focus on one or two, you’ll be known as a ‘jack of all trades, master of none.’

Try narrowing down, fine-tuning your goal. Remember, it’s essential to be specific and focused.

It might be to your advantage to create success steps that continually move you forward on the path to reaching your ultimate goal.

For someone new to writing, the first step in a writing career would be to learn the craft of writing. Give yourself a year or two to join writing groups, take advantage of writing workshops or classes, write articles, or create stories. You should also be part of at least one critique group. This would be your first step to achieving your intent, your success vision.

Instead of trying to go directly from A to B, it might be more effective to go from A to A1 to A2 to A3 . . . to B. But, again, for each step, the intent, a clear-cut vision, and the driving passion all need to be front and center.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author and children’s ghostwriter, editor, and coach with clients worldwide. In addition, she offers self-publishing help for children’s authors with WRITERS ON THE MOVE PRESS.

Karen’s children’s books include “Walking Through Walls” and her DIY book, How to Write Children’s Fiction Books.” 

If you need help with your children’s story, visit: https://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com.  

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MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the multi award-winning author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning #HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including “The Frugal Book Promoter” (https://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromoIII), now offered in its third edition by Modern History Press. Others in that series are “How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically,” “The Frugal Editor” and two booklets, both in their second editions also from Modern History Press. The booklets, “Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers” (https://bit.ly/LastMinuteEditsII) and “Great First Impression Book Proposals” (https://bit.ly/BookProposalsII) are career boosters in mini doses and both make ideal thank you gifts for authors. The one on writing book proposals is also available as an Audio Book. “The Frugal Editor “(https://tinyurl.com/TheFrugalEditor), was recently released in its third edition. It is the winningest book in this series for writers. Carolyn also has three frugal books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it helps them understand what is needed to convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It is “A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques” (https://bit.ly/RetailersGuide). In addition to this blog, Carolyn helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at https://TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs all things editing–grammar, formatting and more–at “The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor” (https://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com). Learn more and follow for news on her new releases directly from Amazon at https://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile.