by David Rawlings, @DavidJRawlings

In my past few blog posts I’ve looked at the mechanics of writing – coming up with new body language quirks for characters or getting the feedback you need to help improve your drafts and your craft.

This month I’d like to look inside. In particular, what values do you have, and what role do they play in your writing?

Good writing needs to come from deep within, so ideally your values are the foundation of your work, but they can also appear on the surface, in your style, your characters, your dialogue … everything. And they can appear in your work in three different ways.

The values you use for your craft

Connecting your values with what you write will help you produce something that will resonate with you at a deeper level and, hopefully, will be better for the fact it might mean more to you. Just say you hold the concept of truth dear. That means you’re likely to ensure your dialogue is true to the character of your characters. Or you value wit – that means I continue to hone my writing until I’ve come up with something that is clever. 

You might also value collaboration, so you’ll get more input from your beta readers.  Or you value details, so you can enjoy the process of editing and fine-tuning your work. 

Settings and themes will also benefit from connecting to your values. If you value the great outdoors or summer holidays, so setting your story there will likely produce more vivid descriptions as you draw from something deeper than just research.

The values you give your characters

Great characters have more than just a description. Sure, your protagonist is 6 feet tall, with black hair and smooth complexion, but what upsets them? What floods them with satisfaction or achievement? 

Characters can be deepened by giving them values, and if these values are ones that are important to you, even better. That will help you understand how these values are visible to others.

Values give characters another layer of connection for your readers.

The values you use for your career

Working out your values also gives you some touchpoints for your writing career that go deeper than contracts, sales or platform numbers. 

I write stories with meaning, reflecting one of my values in life, which is to have deeper conversations about life. So I want readers to finish reading and start reflecting. In my ideal world a reader takes one of my stories and sees themselves in it.

So when I get a message from a reader who read The Baggage Handler or The Camera Never Lies and tells me that they’re now thinking about the baggage they may be carrying or the honesty in their own relationships, that’s a win. Don’t get me wrong – I’m still focused on sales and building platform, but it’s another metric I can use that gives me deeply satisfying. 

So what are your values – as a person and a writer? And how could your writing benefit from connecting with them? Why not make a list of the things that are important to you – that you hold dear – and use them to deepen and widen your writing?

---