Ali Luke is on a virtual book tour for her novel, Lycopolis, and she wants to talk to you about the importance of writing what you love in your own voice. Important stuff!

Do you feel like you haven’t quite found your writing voice?

There are plenty of technically good writers whose words seem to fall a little flat – and plenty of writers whose grammar and spelling isn’t quite top-notch, but whose words grip the reader all the same.

Voice is that hard-to-pin-down quality that makes your writing come alive. It’s not something you can impose on your writing (though you can practice using different voices). It needs to come from who you are – from the heart.

And the best way to write from the heart is to:

Write What You Care About

Many writers don’t have the freedom to pour words out on whatever topic they choose. You could be in a situation where, frankly, most of your writing is on something you don’t truly care about – you’re providing freelance services, or you’re writing as part of your day job.

But even if you can find just a little bit of time each week to write something from the heart, this will make a difference. You could write:

• A blog where you write about something that really matters to you
• The novel you’ve been thinking about for years
• Poetry that captures your unique take on the world around you

This sort of writing brings you alive. You’ll get a sense of flow as you write – you might even lose track of time. Instead of struggling through each sentence, you’ll find that the words come more easily.

But What About the Money?

Perhaps you’ve chosen to write on particular topics because you know they can make you money – like celebrity gossip or fashion or gadgets or weight loss. But how much are you really going to make if you burn out on writing after a few months?

Writers can and do make money by working on something that they love. Pace and Kyeli blog about changing the world. I blog about writing. Self-publishing novelists like Amanda Hocking have been very successful writing fiction that they love, and releasing it in Kindle form.

(Writing generally isn’t a quick path to fame and fortune, though. Yes, you can make a living – but I wouldn’t advise you to try doing so unless they write, first and foremost, because you love it.)

But What if People Don’t Like It?

It can be really scary to write a piece that you’re fully committed to. If you’re used to dashing off blog posts or essays or newsletter items, you might find it tough to put something of yourself onto the page. After all, if people don’t like that post you spent ten minutes on and only wrote for the search engines, you’re probably not going to feel too bad … but if you get negative comments on a post where you poured out your soul, you might be really upset.

One way to get round this is to write in a journal that’s for your eyes only. You can be as outspoken or passionate or funny or dramatic as you want – and no-one but you ever needs to see it, until you’re ready.
But at some stage, you’ll want to put your writing out there in front of an audience. That is hard, but it’s also immensely rewarding. I find that the pieces I’m most unsure about – the ones that felt a bit too personal, or experimental – almost always get a very positive response.

Where to Start Today

Even if you only have five minutes, that’s long enough to write. You could:

• Write about something that makes you angry. Perhaps that’s economic injustice, or pollution, or intolerance.
• Write about something that you love. Perhaps that’s your children, or your partner, or a hobby.
• Start on a story that you’ve been thinking about for months (or years).
• Write the one message that you want – need – to share with the world.

(And leave a comment below to let us know how you get on…)

Ali Luke is currently on a virtual book tour for her novel Lycopolis, a fast-paced supernatural thriller centered on a group of online roleplayers who summon a demon into their game and into the world. Described by readers as “a fast and furious, addictive piece of escapism” and “absolutely gripping”, Lycopolis is available in print and e-book form. Find out more at www.lycopolis.co.uk.

Today’s the day! The World-Changing Writing Workshop is open for registration, and woo are we excited!

This is our third year – we started back in 2010 with a grand idea and a whole lot of hopes, and we’ve helped hundreds of writers each year get their words out of their hearts and into the world. It’s a leveling up of your writing!

This year, we’ve got our biggest, star-studded-est cast of guest speakers ever to come on board, teaching you about the 6 Steps of World-Changing Writing.

Step Two: Find Your Voice – taught by Goddess Leonie Dawson of GoddessGuidebook.com

Step Three: Find Your Audience – taught by Sonia Simone of Copyblogger

Step Four: Find Support – taught by Kelly Kingman of KellyKingmanMedia.com

Step Five: Grow – taught by Susan Piver, author of How Not to be Afraid of Your Own Life

Step Six: Set Your Intention – taught by Barbara Sher, author of Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want and Refuse to Choose

And, of course, Step Seven (bonus!): Change the World – taught by yourses truly!

Check! That! Out! I cannot imagine a better group of world-changing writers, gathered together to share what they know and help you get your own writing out and into the world and making changes!

This year, we’ve got a totally free totally fantastic intro course for you – six quick, helpful videos each with a bit about these six steps, coupled with a mission you can do right away to power up your writing – whether or not you join us for the WCWW3 proper!

And, to go meta for a moment, here’s the intro video to the intro course:

To get in on the free intro action, just sign up here and you’ll immediately get the session on Step One: Write. The rest will follow, and you’ll get it going on right away! Whee!

If you’re impatient and just want to dive in, watch the puppets, and get registered, hit up the WCWW homepage here.

The past two years have been amazing, and this one stands to be even more so! We hope you join in the work and learn how to get your words out of your heart and into the world – and make your writing world-changing with us this summer!

I’ve been playing the Sims 3 again, in the evenings, to clear my head and chill me out enough to sleep. (Yes, I play a life-sim to relax. I’m weird. Known issue.)

I’m also reading “Finding Your Way in a Wild New World” by Martha Beck.

Turns out, these two things are related.

Curious?

Watch the video! (6:20)

It’s all about being in a vast and rapidly expanding tribe, how that affects us, and how lonely it gets out here on the edge — and why we make poor friendship decisions because of it all.

And, of course, what to do about it.

I would love to hear your stories about perilous friendships and tribe memberships. Let me know how this resonated with you!

It has come to my attention that many people don’t actually know how I ended up with a disability. Not to mention how I’m doing with accepting said disability.

So, in my new grand tradition, in as much as a tradition can be new, I made you a video (07:24)!

Click here to watch it! (07:24)

What have you been struggling with lately? How can you find acceptance?

And let me know how I can help.

Three lovely ladies – Susannah Conway, Marianne Elliott, and Jen Louden – have put together an incredible project called The Creative Joy Retreat, a dreamy five-day intensive where you get in touch with your deep passion for everything you create.  It’s all about connecting with yourself and your art, so you know I love it!

To really love and honour the joy in our creation is not only ridiculously important for our connection to our own creation, but it’s also world-changing. When we’re connected to our own joy, we’re more joyful, and others get infected with that joy when we interact with them.

And because it’s so important, I want to share my creative joy process with you!

Make sure to watch this video because it’s one of my cutest ones ever. (Running time: 3:02)

During my process of accepting my disability, the number one thing I’ve been saying is “I just want to go back to the way things were.”

Oh, dear.

Really?

Yes. I’ve been saying that.

But there is no going back. There’s never any going back.

So, what can we do when we feel like going back? That’s such a hopeless, heart-wrenching feeling, right?

We can go forward.

I’d love to hear from you on where you might go from here! Leave a comment, and let me know what you’re thinking!

Have you felt like no one’s paying any attention to you? Why share your stories with the world if no one’s paying attention, right? If no one is listening? If no one cares?

We all feel that way. I promise you.

Even I feel that way sometimes. Even your most idolized idol feels that way from time to time.

But here’s the thing: your stories are so vital, you’ve got to tell them anyway.

I made you a video to tell you why this is so, so, so important.

If you only ever watch one video from me, make it this one.

Yes, it’s that important. And it’s only 3 1/2 minutes long.

And I made myself cry on camera – but I managed to avoid banging my fist on my desk, so it’s all good.

If you have a moment and the inclination, I would love you to share a bit of your story with me this week. Our community is a safe starting audience – we’ll loving and gentle with your sweet, sacred stories. It’s good practice for you to get your stories out of your heart and into the world, especially now that you know how important that is.

The number one question we get around here is “How can you be so open in public?”

I mean, I’ve talked about my private parts, my abusive past, and my various traumas on a regular basis.  So, how do I do it?

The short answer: practice.

The somewhat longer but far cuter answer:

It’s that time of year again: the World-Changing Writing Workshop (WCWW) is on the horizon and the tiny writer-bees that live in my head have begun their incessant buzzing. Music to my soul, that sound!

However, I know how hard it is to write. I know how hard it is to take your writing to the next level, to make it world-changing. I know how scary it is to be open, vulnerable, and authentic in your writing. And I want to help you.

If you’ve been struggling to write, but feeling too tapped out…

If you’ve been facing the blank page and blinking cursor and feeling empty of words…

If you feel like your voice has been muted – or you don’t even know what it feels like to write in your own voice…

I can help you.

I am going to help you step up as a heart-based world-changing writer. I’ve created a VIP Writing Apprenticeship Extravaganza just for you. We’ll work together to create a nourishing, consistent writing practice that will bring lasting change to your life – and to the world!

Doesn’t that sound awesome?

The world needs to hear your stories.

I want to help you tell them.

Natural Light by Katja Brezovar

This post is for everyone who’s ever wondered “Just what does this Connection Revolution actually do?”

In 2011, the Connection Revolution helped thousands of dreamers blossom into world-changers, in small and large ways.

We inspired you to connect with yourself, connect with Spirit, connect with others, and change the world. (If you’d like a refresher on how connection will change the world, .)

The Three Pillars of the Connection Revolution

The courses we teach fall into three main categories:

1. Self (connect with yourself)
2. Writing (connect with others: touch them through writing)
3. Business (connect with others: help them through business)

Not everyone here is interested in all three of these, and that’s totally fine. Just focus on what’s relevant to you in your life right now, and skip over the rest.

How we changed the world in 2011

• Through over 100 blog posts / newsletters / videos, we helped you live a more authentic and connection-filled life.
• With Profitable Idealism, we helped you change the world with your business.
• With the 2nd Annual World-Changing Writing Workshop, we helped you change the world with your writing.
• With The Way of the Peaceful Entrepreneur, we helped you stay peaceful while building your business.
• With our coaching programs, I (Pace) helped you find your path in life, and Kyeli helped you establish a world-changing writing practice.
• Our earlier work, like The Usual Error, 52 Weeks to Awesome, and The Connection Manifesto, continued to help others as well.

The Helping Pie

Based on feedback we’ve heard and sweet emails people have sent to us, we made a pie chart of what helped change the world the most in 2011. We factored in both quantity and quality, and we came up with this “Helping Pie”:

The largest light-blue slice is the World-Changing Writing Workshop (WCWW). It helped a lot of people a medium amount. Coaching (purple) and blog/newsletter (orange) are the next largest two slices. Coaching helped two handfuls of people a great deal, and the blog and the newsletter helped a huge number of people a small amount. “UE” is The Usual Error, “52WtA” is 52 Weeks to Awesome, and “PI” is Profitable Idealism.

It’s hard to measure this, but it’s worth the effort. It keeps us focused on our main goal, which is to change the world.

The Profit Pie

The Connection Revolution is a movement, and it’s also a business. (Here’s why.) In the spirit of openness and connection, we’d like to tell you about the business side of things.

Here’s a breakdown of how much net profit we made in 2011. If you’d like to compare the profit pie and helping pie for 2010, you can see them here.

The two biggest slices are the World-Changing Writing Workshop (light blue) and coaching (purple). It’s nice that these are two of the biggest slices of the helping pie, too; that means our profits are aligned with our goals.

The business is almost but not quite to the point where it could fully support our family of 3. In the meantime, I’m still working 50% time at my day job.

Our plans for 2012

These pies help us do more of what’s working and less of what’s not.

We’ll continue posting in the blog and writing/videoing for the eZine. We now only write (or video) one article per week, but we’re doing our best to make that weekly article as helpful as possible.

This summer, we’ll be teaching the 3rd Annual World-Changing Writing Workshop (WCWW3)! We’re excited to tell you all about it soon!

We’ll also be expanding our coaching practices; after WCWW3 we’ll be doubling the number of clients we each take on at a time. We have enough time and attention for this now that we have an assistant. (Yay Ellie!) @todo KYELI COACHING ANNOUNCEMENT / HINT?

We’ll be doing fewer joint ventures so we can focus on our own Great Work. WCWW3 may be the only course we teach with guest speakers this year.

We’ll find other ways to build connection in our community, though — starting with the World-Changer of the Month award. All subscribers of our eZine will be able to participate in a group discussion each month with the recipient of the award. And we’ve got some ideas for using our Facebook group to help you connect with each other.

So what course will we teach in the fall, or the winter? We’ve got some ideas, based on the great feedback we’ve been getting from you in those surveys earlier this year. But instead of just creating a course based on that feedback, we’re thinking of teaching several free teleclasses on those topics to see how many people actually show up. We’ll keep you posted. (:

Who are you?

Speaking of those surveys, here are the results of the “Who are you?” survey! Your responses really touched us, and they’re helping us make the Connection Revolution be of service to you in 2012 and beyond. We won’t share the sweet and amazing things you wrote because many of them are very personal (despite being anonymous) but here are the results of all the tickyboxes that everyone ticked, sorted by the percentage of people who ticked it.

If you take the top 10 most ticked tickyboxes and squish them into two imaginary people, you might get an emotional writer/artist who loves to read and has big dreams and a spiritual visionary teacher/entrepreneur who wants to change the world.

If you attached imaginary nametags to these two imaginary people, they might read, respectively, “Kyeli” and “Pace”.

Just sayin’. (;

Any questions?

Feel free to ask!