What is Your Core Message?

Can you connect all your writing projects to one central theme?

If you are like me, it may seem impossible to find a single theme for my writing projects, let alone my other interests. I puzzled for years over how to connect historical novels set in first century Rome with a blog about intentional living, church dramas, and various other writing and speaking topics. How could they all fit into one brand?

Then I was challenged by an instructor at a writing conference to identify my core message.

You have a core message

The instructor looked at each student in the classroom and told us we each had a single core message, which should be at the center of our personal brand. We looked baffled. One core message? Didn’t we all write multiple genres for various audiences?    

Then she explained what she meant by core message.

• If you could only communicate one message to the world, what would it be?
• What is your heart’s cry? What truth beats at the core of your being?
• What life lesson have you learned that you find yourself sharing time and time again?
• What truth can you not help but speak to those who need to hear it?
• Your core truth is probably connected to wounds in your past and how you have overcome them.

Then she put us on the spot. One at a time she asked us to identify our core message. No warning. No time to ponder. Yet we each came up with an answer.

Our answers weren’t eloquent. They didn’t perfectly capture our message, but at a gut level they were pretty near the mark. Because, deep down, we do have a core concept or truth that we feel passionate about sharing with those around us.

How your core message connects the dots

Next the instructor asked another question. “How does some aspect of your message show up in the manuscript you are working on?”

Again, we were able to identify something in our WIPs that related to the core message we had identified only moments before. A theme, a character arc, an inner demon. Without being conscious of it, we were communicating our core messages through our stories.

Why?

Because who we are comes out in what we write: Our beliefs, our sense of humor, our passions. And our core message.

Since that workshop I have pondered my message and how it shows up in my various writing projects. Now that I have identified that central truth I can be more intentional about expressing it in my writing.

Knowing my core message is yet another step in refining the focus of my blog. It has given me a new understanding of my mystery series characters and their inner struggles. What I once did by gut instinct I can now do with intention and clarity.

I have experimented with variations of my message and composed taglines to capture it succinctly. I have rewritten my social media bios to better express it. I am working it into the synopsis of my series and dust jacket blurbs for my novels.

I am reveling in the clarity and direction my core message gives me. And because it comes from my deepest soul, it feels right. True. Authentic.

What is your core message? How is a thread of your core message woven into your writing?

Award-winning writer Lisa E. Betz believes that everyone has a unique story to tell the world. She loves inspiring fellow writers to be more intentional about developing their craft and courageous in sharing their words. Lisa shares her words through speaking, leading Bible studies, writing historical mysteries, and blogging about living intentionally.

You can find her on Facebook  LisaEBetzWriter Twitter @LisaEBetz and Pinterest Lisa E Betz Intentional Living.