How to Be a Successful Writer: Be a CONNECTOR

You can manifest an entire world. That is the power of a writer, of a creator.

Now, the difference between a “successful” writer, and everyone else who puts pen to paper, is something very simple:

Sharing.

That’s it.

Sure, the quality of the work will determine the scale of the success. Will you have a few fans or a few million fans? Too many writers never share their work. It is born out of inspiration, and dies at the bottom of a desk drawer, or as some file hidden away on a hard drive. It is never shared with spouse, friends, family, or anyone else.

How can a work even have a chance to affect others if it is never shared? How can a writer improve their work if they never see how people react to it?

It used to be, that sharing was REALLY hard, really rare, and really expensive. But not anymore. It’s easy. It’s free. It’s your opportunity to gain or lose.

Sharing is not about marketing. Sharing your work is about allowing it to breathe. To change it from a “thing” (words on paper or screen) – to something that will live, spread, and grow.

Many writers have been confused at this new opportunity, thinking that their role was to create, not to connect. But inherently, being a creator is about connection: to an idea, a place, to knowledge.

Your body of work is not a thing that you put on the shelf. Your body of work is an invisible inspiration that flows through the lives of all you connect with.

Your work – be it a book, article, or some other creation – is NOT what happens when people pick it up. Your work is the EFFECT that happens once they put it down. Your book will eventually be put on a dusty shelf. It will eventually disintegrate in time. It’s just an object. But the ideas you share – how your creation manifests itself in the lives of your readers – THAT is the power of a writer.

This is why music works, why live performance works:

“You and the audience manifest the entire world, an entire set of values, an entire set of possibilities out of thin air.”
– Bruce Springsteen

It is hard to create your body of work. Countless hours of thought, of staring at the blank page or screen. And that is exactly why it deserves the chance to grow – to spread.

Are writers now marketers? I think that is the wrong question.

What I care about is if a writer is a CONNECTOR. Connecting us to ideas, to knowledge, to inspiration. To connect their work to those who can benefit from it. To create something unique, that binds us together.

Do you want your work to spread – to have an EFFECT on the world? It is up to you to make it happen.

-Dan