Structure Unstructurables: The Secret to Harnessing Writers’ Passions and Dreams

Gain a glimpse of how top writers structure unstructurables, embedding their passions and dreams into their writing projects.

Education Versus Your Passions and Dreams

What happens when (not if) you lose sight of your passions and dreams?

For example, when writers make learning their top priority, they can lose sight of their passions and dreams, and that’s when the very lifeblood drains out of their writing projects.

It’s not a question of will this happen. For many, it’s a certainty, and you’re left wondering, will this happen to me? To overcome this problem, embed what matters most to you into everything you write.

The Raw Power of Your Passions and Dreams

Structure unstructurables? Let me start with a more familiar term.

At those times when your passions and dreams align with your writing, it’s often referred to as ‘in the zone.’

When you’re in the zone, life is good: work becomes play, words flow like Niagara Falls, and endless energy courses through your being. But the good times stop when something or someone bumps you out of the zone and into reality land. One moment, you were feeling what it’s like to harness the raw power of your passions and dreams, but suddenly, that sense of wonderment and energy fizzled out.

And that’s a major problem for writers, because instead of infusing your writing with the passions and dreams tied to your life experiences (e.g., emotions, people, and places), you’re left feeling dread instead of joy.

To sum it up, structure unstructurables is a writing process, framed by your passions and dreams, makes your work stand out.

Make Your Passions and Dreams the Priority

Did writing choose you or you choose writing?

If writing is really your thing, you know that to not write is akin to not breathing. Passions and dreams serve as fuel for your writing engine. You wouldn’t think about cutting off the energy that propels you, right?

Reflect on What Matters Most

If you’re serious about writing, feel as if it’s like the air you breathe, then reflect on what matters most to you.

To take inventory of your passions and dreams:

• Grab a blank piece of paper.
• Across the middle, draw a line.
• On the left side of the line, write ‘Birth,’ and on the right side, write ‘Now.’
• Near the top of the paper, mark a ‘+’ (plus) sign, and near the bottom, make a ‘-’ (negative) sign.
• From birth to now, list above the line all the positive things you’ve experienced.
• Below the line, list the negative ones.
• For your positive experiences, circle the ones that made you feel most alive — those moments in time you wished would never end.
• For the negative experiences, put a large asterisk next to the ones that drained your energies — those events that made you want to never do that again.

Structure Unstructurables: Passions and Dreams

Do your writing projects incorporate consistently the passions and dreams associated with your life map?

For example:

• Genres: Have you chosen your preferred genres based on what you love to read, or do they fall into what you think others expect of you?
• Premise: Have you validated your novel’s core idea with a strategic premise that gets your blood pumping, or have you merely kluged together words that give the general idea of where your story will head?
• Characters: Do the characters reflect life’s highs and lows, or do the lessons they model for readers seem watered down, like a fuzzy copy of a copy?
• Plots: Do your main and subsidiary plots reflect the essence of your passions and dreams, or have you jumped on the bandwagon that plays entertaining tunes for readers but does nothing for their souls?
• Themes: Have your external, internal, and philosophical themes highlighted universal truths you feel are vital for others to know, or does your story meander, excluding important insights that don’t inform and inspire?
• Scenes: Have you packed what matters most to you into every scene, or do too many of these mini-stories lack the core of who you are?

When you structure unstructurables into your novels, you harness the raw power of your passions and dreams, shaping the lives of young and old as your stories entertain, inform, and inspire.

Conclusion

Overcome the temptation to prioritize learning over your passions and dreams.

Focus on knowing what matters most to you. Make that wisdom the bedrock of your writing. Achieve this foundation by adopting and adapting a personalized writing process, a discipline that incorporates your passions and dreams.

Your readers will thank you for giving them the heartfelt content they crave.

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