Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

Latest Episodes:

Ep 213: How to Hook and Hold Your Readers Sep 19, 2019

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[Ep 213] If you didn’t click to read this first sentence, I failed. If we want to hook readers and hold their attention so they read all the way to the end, we have to generate an intriguing title or headline. Lure Readers with Your Title Books, chapters, articles, essays, poems: they all need names or titles that invite the reader to stop skimming and scrolling and think, “Hm. I wonder what this is about?” or “Oh, wow, I need this information.” I opened up Feedly when I was preparing this article and stopped on an article at The Write Practice titled “How to Find the Core Message of Your Writing” because it was clear and seemed relevant to the kinds of things I like to read. But I also stopped on an article by Emily P. Freeman: “How to Find (and Become) A Good Listener.” That sounded useful to help me as a coach and to help me improve relationships with family and friends. Or consider James Clear’s book Atomic Habits. The main title intrigues me with that word “atomic” connected to “habits.” His subtitle is “An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones.” Then he includes a tagline that clarifies it further: “Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results.” That sounds like a doable approach to the topic of habits, doesn’t it? He hooked me with his title and subtitle combo. We have to entice our readers to click on the link or open the book by capturing that first concept in a few words that hint at or outright reveal the subject, topic, theme, or problem we’ll address in the piece. Hook Your Readers with Attention Grabbers Let’s say you nailed it—you lured in your readers with the headline. Now it’s time to hook them—to grab them by the throat, as novelists often say. Bring on the attention grabber: it’s that first line or two that will keep them reading. When I taught composition to high school students, I’d offer attention-grabber ideas like: a startling statistic a quote a question an intriguing statement or claim a story (e.g., an anecdote that stands alone, a personal story, or someone else’s story) That article about finding the core message of your writing starts, “Why do you write?”—a question any writer will instinctively answer, at least in his head. So the author, Joe Bunting, has probably hooked us. Our mind is engaged with the question. It’s a good attention-grabber. Emily P. Freeman’s article on finding and becoming a good listener has an epigraph—a quote from Dr. Larry Crabb about listening to each other—followed by the beginning of the actual article. She starts with a story: It’s 2012, and there’s a stack of brochures in the little room I type in. I keep staring over at them, rereading their invitation, “To know more about you: If you would like to be informed of upcoming events…” I reach over, and I turn the plastic holder to face the wall. I cannot keep reading that same brochure over and over again. What’s going to happen? Why is this brochure featured so prominently in this story? Is she going to take action? Is it going to change her? What does this brochure have to do with listening? You can see how stories are great for hooking readers—they’re great attention-grabbers. They awaken curiosity and open a loop that we must close. We want to know what happens and how it ends. So Emily has hooked me. You, too, can use stories. And here’s a bonus tip—if you start far enough into a situation, the action of a story engages and hooks the reader, but you can leave it hanging so that you complete the story in the conclusion. That provides closure that satisfies and gratifies the reader. It feels like you’ve come full circle. But for them to get to the end,

Ep 212: Productive Writers Build Their Body of Work - Pillar Three Aug 27, 2019

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[Ep 212] For about four years, I didn’t do much to get healthy or stay healthy. I’d talk about getting in shape but wouldn’t actually do anything. I’d wake up and think about it, then roll over and go back to sleep. It’s no surprise, of course, that the idea of exercising—the thought of it—didn’t strengthen a single muscle in my body. The desire to be healthy, no matter how intense, didn’t actually make me healthy. I had to take action. Finally, about a year ago, I decided to do something. I started by jogging, plodding slowly through the neighborhood on a route so short I called it the wimpy route. But that’s how it began. To start improving my health, I took action. It was humbling to start so small, but I got out there and ran—I mean, plodded—the wimpy route over and over. And wouldn’t you know, action produced results. Over time, I ran a tiny bit faster and farther and grew a tiny bit stronger and healthier. By continuing to take action, I continued to see results. Productive Writers Take Action If we want to be writers, we can’t just talk about writing and wish our projects into existence. The idea of writing—the thought of it—won’t get a single sentence of an article, blog post, poem, or short story composed. The desire to be a writer won’t actually make you a writer. You have to decide to do something. You have to take action. That’s how it begins, no matter how humble or wimpy it may seem to you. Productive Writers Write In the beginning, it doesn’t have to be much. Just as I didn’t expect to be running a half-marathon distance when I first started plodding around the wimpy route, we don’t have to complete a 200-page novel in our first efforts to sit at our computers and write. We can tap out a few sentences; maybe a paragraph or two. With those humble beginnings, it begins. And over time it adds up. That’s the foundation of a productive writer. A productive writer writes. Productivity Doesn’t Mean Assembly-Line Production Productivity doesn’t mean we have to spit out poems like candy from a vending machine or roll out blog articles like cars on an assembly line with repetition and precision. After all, that can lead to a loss of creativity and originality. What productivity does mean is we have to start and complete projects instead of falling down rabbit holes of research for weeks on end or avoiding the work out of fear or perfectionism. Productive writers finally step away from the search engines and library books and throw some of their discoveries onto the page to sort it out and produce a final project. Productive writers overcome perfectionism and fear by sitting down and tapping out their thoughts to create a rough draft, no matter how rough. Priscilla Long, author of The Portable Writer’s Mentor, writes, “In the end what matters to the ambitious dreamer is a steady and even rather plodding stream of work.”1 It’s fine, she says, if much of the output is “rough, awkward, contrived, and arguably awful.”2 That’s part of becoming a productive writer. You regularly produce a “plodding stream of work” no matter how “arguably awful” it emerges. Through the act of writing, you’re discovering your voice, your style, your preferred genre, your message. You’re figuring out how to write and what to write every time you write. It’s building a kind of creative strength in you, as you overcome Resistance and do the work. Productive Writers Finish Eventually, after establishing a system of producing words and rough drafts, productive writers will develop a habit of finishing what they start. So often,

Ep 211: Be More Creative to Enjoy Your Best Writing Life: Pillar Two Aug 22, 2019

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[Ep 211] Creativity as a pillar of the writing life? It’s a no-brainer. Creativity and writing go together like pencil and paper. Writers practice creativity each and every day. But when we think about creative writing and a creative writer, our minds may turn toward MFA programs. After all, that’s where you study creative writing. I hate the potential implication—that other kinds of writing are not creative. Who's a Creative Writer? Creative writing instructors and programs offer teaching and training that nudge students toward an approach—a mindset and practice—different from that of writers who focus more on, say, blogging or marketing. Certainly MFA students gain skills that prepare them for a rewarding, challenging writing life—one that matches their goals to write and produce literary work. But I believe those who write corporate brochures and articles about succulents are also creative writers, even if they didn’t graduate with an MFA or land their work in respected literary journals. Bloggers and copywriters can also practice a rewarding, challenging creative writing life that matches their goals. When you write, you’re creating. If you write, you create. Thus, creativity is a pillar of the writing life. On the flip side, all writers—even published authors who have completed MFA programs—are capable of producing somewhat stagnant, occasionally derivative, work. We don’t want that. So how can any writer—all writers—practice creativity? How can we be more creative to enjoy our best writing lives? Entire books have been written about the topic, so I can’t tackle everything. But here are a few thoughts to get us started. What Is Creativity? First, it might help to establish a definition of creativity, but that’s harder than you might think. Researchers and experts and writers have been trying to pin it down, and no one seems to agree. I haven’t located one single definition (unless we would turn to Merriam-Webster). What I’ve spotted are words and phrases tossed around that we can consider: originality (this comes up a lot) surprise (which we talked about regarding curiosity) authenticity (important for writers to practice) discovery (including making connections)1 Whether these words reflect the process of creating or the finished product itself—that is, the thing created—they give us a hint of what it means to be creative: what it means to create. Learning from Other Creatives I’ve written before of how we can learn from the greats, studying writers we admire, even copying passages to learn techniques. We may find inspiration in their creative process and integrate elements into our own space and our own routines. But why limit ourselves to learning from other writers? We may work in the world of words, but we can learn from other domains: Writers can learn from the creativity of scientists to continually ask questions, experiment, dig deeper, analyze, draw conclusions, and try again. Writers can learn from visual artists how color, form, and texture engage the senses and drive decisions. Writers can learn from actors how working with the constraints of the stage and the script, we can make numerous choices that affect a performance and its effect on the audience. Julia Cameron’s Artist Dates encourage outings to step out of our writing hovels and step into other spaces, whether a museum or yarn shop, an antique emporium or international grocery store. From this new set of sensations and input, we build a network of possible connections, with one idea linking to another and another to form a new,

Ep 210: Cultivate Curiosity for Your Best Writing Life, Pillar One Aug 06, 2019

Show notes

[210] Dani Shapiro writes, “When I think of the wisest people I know, they share one defining trait: curiosity” (213, Still Writing). As she notes this connection between wisdom and curiosity, she continues, “They turn away from the minutiae of their lives—and focus on the world around them. They are motivated by a desire to explore the unfamiliar. They are drawn toward what they don't understand. They enjoy surprise” (213). I love how she connects surprise and curiosity. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi makes that same connection, as you’ll see shortly. But before we get to that, let me establish my own connection: that curiosity is one of three pillars of your best writing life...along with creativity and productivity. Curious Writers Bring More to Their Work As curiosity becomes a daily practice, our writing will benefit, because curiosity serves as a driving force to producing captivating content and developing a writer who has things to say. Nourish curiosity and you’ll have a lively imagination drawing from a vast and ever-expanding library of ideas. Each day, even the smallest flash of wonder fans the flame of creativity. If we agree with Dani Shapiro that curious people focus on the world around them with a desire to explore the unfamiliar—drawn toward what they don’t understand—we gather clues for how we, too, can cultivate curiosity to live out our best writing life. If you’ve lost your sense of wonder and dampened curiosity, don’t worry. You can recapture it, funneling into your work a newfound delight in the world around you, in yourself, and in others. If you happen to be by nature a curious lifelong learner, lucky you! Continue to explore new ways to cultivate it further to become even more curious and pour what you discover into your writing projects. Develop Curiosity Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Creativity writes: “[T]he first step toward a more creative life is the cultivation of curiosity and interests, that is, the allocation of attention to things for their own sake…. Creative individuals are childlike in that their curiosity remains fresh even at ninety years of age; they delight in the strange and the unknown. And because there is no end to the unknown, their delight also is endless.” (346, Creativity) Did you hear his suggestions? Allocate “attention to things for their own sake.” “Delight in the strange and unknown.” It’s similar to what Dani Shapiro was saying: even the old in age are young at heart as they “explore the unfamiliar” and let themselves be “drawn toward what they don’t understand.” Curious people learn something new every day. Search, Capture, Ask My mom moved from the American Midwest to a coastal town in the South and became captivated by the flora and fauna of the area. She bought a telephoto lens so she could capture photos of the birds that seem so exotic to her. She grew up and lived most of her life with mourning doves, cardinals, robins, starlings, swallows, and red-winged blackbirds. Now she’s delighting in what are, for her, “strange and unknown” species. She’s “exploring the unfamiliar” as she snaps photos and looks up in a guidebook the names of birds that turn out to be wood storks, ibises, great blue herons, green herons, and anhingas. She shares them with her Facebook followers posting one photo after another along with thoughtful captions further modeling this curiosity that comes so naturally to her. My mom is by nature curious and developed it as a journalist, rooting out stories everywhere she goes. But you don’t need to be a trained journalist to ask the questions popping into your head and to search for answers:

Ep 209: Curiosity, Creativity, Productivity: Three Pillars to Building Your Best Writing Life Jul 30, 2019

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[Ep 209] Each week I claim that writers are discovering ways to reach their writing goals—and have fun—by being more curious, creative, and productive. And each week you may be thinking, “Really?” Yes, I really do believe these three traits or these three values can drive you forward to achieve your goals—and have fun along the way. They are values I myself take to heart and encourage my clients to explore and embrace, because curiosity, creativity, and productivity—together—have the potential to transform both you and your writing. Today’s overview will give you a high-level look, and in the weeks ahead we’ll drill down into each one, to look at their core. By taking a closer look, you’ll see how developing these traits as a part of everyday life and as part of your writing practice, you’ll position yourself to become the writer you want to be. Pillar One: Curiosity in the Writing Life Why curiosity on its own? Why not tuck that under the umbrella of creativity? Curiosity drives us to discover, to wonder, to think “What if?” Could there be a more energizing trait for a writer? Writers of fiction turn to the “what if” prompt to ignite their imagination. Curiosity propels stories forward for the reader as they wonder what’s next. Curiosity gets characters into trouble and then curiosity helps them solve problems to get out of trouble. Poets, too, benefit from curiosity as a driving force. As the poet asks questions, she looks more closely at anything from a fish to a father. Curiosity calls us to slow down, consider, put the pieces together in a way that the rest of the world, speeding along without a pause, rarely has time to mess with—and curious poets put words to what they’ve pieced together. Writers of nonfiction who let curiosity guide them will break free from rephrasing the same old points over and over. A curious writer will dig deeper, probe into subject matter, research topics to find the freshest, most accurate answers. Writers who value and practice this as a part of their daily lives will likely have more fun along the way, delighting in both big wonders and small, grieving over deep injustice, seeking truth and revealing it. In the next episode, we’ll look in more detail about how to develop curiosity as a writer and practice it regularly. Let’s look briefly at the next pillar of the writing life: creativity. Pillar Two: Creativity in the Writing Life You can enroll in an MFA program to earn a degree in what? Creative writing. Whatever focus you select—fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction—creativity is the core concept of the program because creativity is core to a writer. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone disagree with the belief that creativity is key to great writing, and yet I’ve read pieces that could use an injection of creativity. Aren’t we seeking to create something new rather than regurgitate something old and stale in a style that sounds like it could have been written by anyone? Embedded in the idea of creativity is not only that the ideas are creative—they’re fresh, novel, compelling, engaging—but also that we are indeed creating things. We can’t make something out of nothing, but we can mold into existence a passage, a poem, a project from ideas formed out of words. In that sense, writers are creators. Practicing the craft of writing builds our confidence in wielding the tools at our disposal, but we can practice creativity in other areas of life in a way that enriches us as people. That, in turn, feeds into our work. Be more creative as a person, and you’ll move closer to becoming a more creative writer—and thus achieving your writing goals.

Ep 208: Children’s Book Author Sharon Stohler’s Path to Self-Publishing Jul 23, 2019

Show notes

[Ep 208] Today I’m chatting with Sharon Stohler, author of the nonfiction children’s biography Affectionately Yours: The Devoted Life of Abigail Adams, a charming and inspiring picture book released in June 2019. As you’ll learn in the interview, Sharon and I met years ago when we both started home educating our very small children, so we’ve known each other for decades. I was privy to her idea for this book years ago when she shared it with me as a friend. Later, we worked together when she brought me on for more official coaching. Sharon’s path to publishing was long and required vision, flexibility, patience, and perseverance. Pursuing traditional publishing revealed insights that led her to eventually land on self-publishing Affectionately Yours. And anyone who has poked around at self-publishing or pulled it off knows to do it well you undertake a long list of new steps and stages. She did it. She pulled it off. I hope you find her story instructive and motivating. Though the process was long and complicated, time-consuming and expensive, she said that the moment she held that book in her hands, it was all worth it. Sharon Stohler has a B.S. in Early Childhood Education from the University of Delaware and a Masters of Education from West Chester University. She has taught children ages four through 12 in private, public, and homeschool classrooms. Sharon currently teaches 3rd grade in a hybrid homeschool classroom and often finds herself delighted by her students and their brilliant minds. Aside from her own family room, she feels most at home in a library. She and her adventurous husband live in Indianapolis, where they cater to the needs of their Siamese cat, Gigi. They have three grown children. Resources Sharon Stohler's website Affectionately Yours: The Devoted Life of Abigail Adams (affiliate link) Tiny Boat, collaborative publisher and illustrator Daron Benson Children's Book Authors and Illustrators Facebook page Bigger Dot, printer for Affectionately Yours Tara Lazar's sample children's book layout & dummy construction John Adams biography by David McCullough (softcover edition, affiliate link) All podcast interviews All podcast episodes

Ep 207: How to Sort and Stack Your Ideas and Tasks to Transform as a Writer and Person Jul 16, 2019

Show notes

[Ep 207] On my drive to Minneapolis to serve on the faculty of Northwestern Christian Writers Conference, I listened to podcasts: one after another, back-to-back. I welcomed that stream of input filling my mind with ideas, strategies, and solutions that I can apply to my writing life. But it’s easy to listen and then forget what I heard. What a waste if I devote hours to listening but never remember or apply what the experts recommend! Life is short. I want to learn and grow and transform—I want to become wiser and more discerning. I’m committed to implementing those ideas! Sort and Stack So first I capture the information. Later, you know what I do? I sort and stack it. I’ve done this for years without having a name or phrase to put with it, but author Robin Jones Gunn said it in her keynote address: we must learn to sort and stack. Sort and stack. Sort and Stack Conference Notes Sometimes conference attendees report that by the end of the weekend they feel like they’ve been drinking from a fire hose. They’re blasted with so much new information in session after session, they feel hit with input and ideas and vocabulary and concepts they've never heard before. It’s overwhelming. It would be easy to set aside the notes from those sessions and return to status quo when they arrive home. But life is short. Those attendees came to learn and grow and transform, so I hope they’re committed to implementing those ideas. Avoid the Overwhelm Hopefully they scribbled down copious notes, captured them someplace—to sort and then stack them into logical, usable groups. My breakout session offered probably 30 ideas, maybe more, of ways people can put some heart, soul, and a little laughter into social media. Another session may have offered 20 or 50 more ideas. Soon, the writers will have filled a notebook. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. We don’t have to do it all, and we don’t have to do it all right away. But we don't want to lose those ideas. The conference attendees don’t have to implement every idea the day they get home from the conference, and I don’t have to implement every idea I heard on the drive home in those podcasts I listened to. We want to sort out what to do when so we try things out in an order that makes sense. Create a Master Stack If we successfully capture the information, we can create a master list and continue to work through it, sorting and stacking over time. We can convert our notes from the master list or “stack” into more lists, labeled however we wish: Research Try next month Archive As you sort notes from your master list into these sub-stacks, you can label them in many ways. Use the nomenclature from the organization, time-management, or productivity systems that make sense to you. Again, think of each new list as another stack. Move notes to one stack or another, sorting as you go. Sort and Stack Based on ROI The Writer's Guide to ROI series helps with sorting and stacking. By thinking through return on investment of any given idea, I can comb through the stack of ideas I collected from my podcast marathon and sort them based on values and goals and efficient use of time. Then I can sort them into new stacks or categories to figure out how and when to implement them. This moves me closer to action I’ll take—specifically the very next step. What’s the Next Action? Long ago I read David Allen’s book Getting Things Done, which explains his productivity methodology. He recommends a Next Action list formed by asking, “What’s the next step?”

Ep 206: A Writer's Guide to ROI (Part 4) Jul 09, 2019

Show notes

[Ep 206] Several years ago I watched a free training presented by Chalene Johnson, where she explained how to start with one piece of content and then use it in several forms for various outlets. With this efficient and productive approach, she gets the most mileage out of a single piece of content. It’s a clever, creative way to improve ROI. Chalene Johnson’s Content Creation System Chalene is comfortable on video, so she starts with a live video as the primary content form. She decides what she’ll speak on and has several points to cover, and I don’t think she scripts it in advance. She probably writes out bullet points to keep her on track and speaks from those. At the time of the training she recommended Facebook Live, but since then I’ve seen her and others do live video on multiple platforms at the same time. That might be like Facebook Live and Instagram Live or IGTV and maybe Periscope, too. With one live broadcast, she instantly reaches people in multiple places all at once. Afterwards, that video is saved. And that’s the beauty of her system. She can repurpose that saved video into multiple formats. For example, she can: edit the video recording into segments to publish on YouTube use the audio from that recorded livestream to create a podcast episode have the audio transcribed and use that written version as the draft of an article or two to publish at her website pull quotes and video excerpts to use on Twitter create infographics and quote posts to pin on Pinterest design quote images for her Instagram feed I don’t think she mentioned it, but she could create slide decks to publish on LinkedIN SlideShare and use the recorded video as part of a program or course. One piece of content turns into gobs of material for all kinds of purposes and platforms. The impact she can have with just one focused creative idea and effort blew me away. That’s a savvy use of one’s time and a remarkable return on investment. Creative Content Repurposing for Writers Maybe one day I’ll start with live broadcasts like Chalene Johnson, but that’s not who I am or where I’m at. Inspired by her training, I started to think about my own strengths: What one piece of content could be my starting point? What could I create to serve at least double-duty if not triple- or quadruple-duty to have the biggest impact possible? How can I take the principle behind Chalene’s training and adapt it for where I’m at as a writer to increase my ROI? Start with Written Content: Big to Small As a writer, an obvious starting point for me was written content. That’s what I did. Podcast: I ended up scripting my podcast episodes, so those are offered in audio form for those who subscribe to the podcast. Blog Article: The script is available as an article for those who prefer reading it at my website. Newsletter: Since it’s relatively short, I include that same content in my weekly newsletter, so people don’t have to go to my website or listen to the podcast to learn from my ideas. Instagram Quote: For the Instagram feed, I create a quote post with a brief excerpt from the article—enough so that people don’t have to go to the original piece in order to gain a valuable insight, in case they want to stay in Instagram rather than click away to my website. Instagram Image: To mix things up, I often take a photo that relates to the ideas, such as the image of a book I refer to in the article, and publish that in my feed. Instagram Story: Sharing the post from my Instagram feed in my Story draws a few people who are focusing more on that element of Instagram.

Ep 205: A Writer's Guide to ROI (Part 3) Jul 02, 2019

Show notes

[Ep 205] In the Next-Level Writer series, we talked about plans and goals. When we set out with a goal and make a plan to methodically move toward that goal, we see what it takes. We understand the investment involved. That’s when we measure the ROI of a particular task or activity using not only our deepest values, which we looked at in Part 2 of A Writer’s Guide to ROI, but also our goals. Weigh Your Goals Let’s say your goal is to complete the manuscript of a novel by the end of summer, but on a whim you commit to a one-month daily photography challenge on social media. The challenge is a lot of fun and provides a creative boost as you break away from your work-in-progress to edit and post an image. Is that creative boost worth it? The challenge starts to distract you from your writing goal as you invest more time in photography than in writing the novel. You have to decide. Do you change your goals and your alter your plan to accommodate an activity? Consider your ROI. You Can Change Course for Greater ROI If the photography challenge keeps you from meeting that end-of-summer goal, should you continue with the challenge and change your deadline, or focus entirely on the writing? As you pour creative energy into the photography, you may have less available to invest in the writing. But you might gain so many new followers, it’s worth it, because you might never have met them if you hadn’t the challenge. What’s the greater ROI? Consider your goals. What’s more important? What’s needed first? That will help you determine the best investment of your time, creative energy, and personal resources. Measure Your ROI You can measure the return on investment based on what you’d like to see. In part one in A Writer’s Guide to ROI, Crystal Paine decided activities were worth her time if they made her money or brought in more people or helped her serve her audience better. You could try other measurements: Income Word count Email signups Visitors to your website Readers of a particular article Engagement and likes on a social media update New followers or friends on social media Sales of a book or product Downloads of a free item Downloads of a podcast episode Completing a work-in-progress Relationships with people in the industry (agents, editors, publishers, other writers) You can see from this list how specific activities lead to certain measurements. There are other elements that are so important but much harder to measure, like emotional returns. It’s hard to track those, but you can try. Track them daily using a scale of 1 to 10 to determine where you’re at each day or at the completion of each activity. You can decide how you feel or what you’ve gained in such areas as: Self-improvement Confidence Happiness or joy Creative satisfaction Emotional energy Improved writing skills Growth Is It Worth It for Me? Is it worth it for me to post on social media at my current rate or more often? Is it worth it to produce a weekly podcast? Is it worth it to send out an email newsletter? Is it worth it to quietly work on books that won’t be available for over a year, maybe two? For me, the answer is yes. Yes to all of that and more. When I calculate my ROI—which is ultimately based on my goals and values—the time I spend on the writing and writing-related activities brings in new relationships as I

Ep 204: A Writer's Guide to ROI (Part 2) Jun 25, 2019

Show notes

[Ep 204] My son participates in value debate. The competitors take either the affirmative or negative stance on a resolution and argue for or against it based on a value. The judge determines which side best upholds their value. I’ve served as a judge for these debates many times, and the more I listen to these clashes, the more I’ve come to realize we make decisions based on personal values all the time in our everyday lives. Just as an example, I’ve talked with the kids about this, and let’s say they’ve gotten an invitation to a quiet gathering with close friends where they’ll just hang out and chat. But then they receive another invitation on the very same night to a fun activity, like a concert, with people they don’t know as well. How do they choose? They can decide based on what they value more: time with close friends doing something quiet or a chance to attend a concert. Which is the higher value at that time in their lives? Personal values form the core of our decisions and are critical to determining our ROI. A Writer’s Values As writers, we could take on countless tasks and sign up for numerous activities, all of which bring various results. So we bring in the idea of our return on investment, or ROI. If we invest something of ourselves—time, money, resources, energy—what are we getting back from it? What’s the result—the return—on that investment? Our values are behind it all, at the core of our choices. Whether we realize it or not, we inevitably return to our values to determine our ROI. Does any given activity and the investment it requires fit with what we value most? Know Your Values We all have deep-seated values, whether we’re aware of them or not and whether we’ve ever identified them or articulated them or not. They may be high-level, ethical values—like not hurting someone else in your pursuits. Or they may be smaller, personal values, like carving out time each day to exercise. In part one of A Writer’s Guide to ROI, I shared how Crystal Paine determined if her time devoted to a task or activity was worth it. For her, the time invested must result in money and helping people—that’s how she knows it’s worth devoting time to a project or task. She’s come to value that as a business owner. What Are Your Values as a Writer? As you see, one of her values is helping people. You may share that value. As a writer, you may long to help people with your ideas and solutions. You may have other values, as well. You may value the satisfaction of producing something creative or taking the risk to delve into a personal struggle so you can share it with others so they might find hope. You may value storytelling as an art form and strive to write beautiful narratives. You may value poetry and commit to daily practice regardless of whether your final versions end up in a literary magazine. Knowing your values helps determine the ROI of an activity. When Values Are Revealed But sometimes your personal values may not be easy to identify. You may not have articulated them. Our values have a way of revealing themselves as we take action. You get to a certain level of success or achievement and realize, wait, this isn’t what you thought it was going to require or feel like. This isn’t aligning with your values. This isn’t what you want. Jeff Goins’ Story This happened to Jeff Goins. For years as a blogger, Jeff created content about writing, publishing, and creativity. Over time, he decided to build this part-time pursuit into a business, and it grew. He hired employees and farmed out some of the articles he used to...

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