[00:00:00] This is the Vanessa Barrington Show. We have all been there. Perhaps you are sitting with 10 ideas. Maybe you feel like you're writing 18 different books, and if that's your real story, I have supported a client that felt that way. Maybe you just wanna write one, but you've got no bloody idea what it's really about.
[00:00:26] You know, something wants to come through and you can feel it, but the moment someone asks you, Hey, what's your book about? You freeze. Here's the secret that nobody tells. That confusion that you might be experiencing is not a sign that you're not ready. It's actually a sign that you haven't identified your macro idea yet for your book, and that my friend, is exactly what we are fixing today.
[00:00:53] In today's episode, we are talking all about the macro idea. Your macro idea is the big central truth that your book is built around. Now, it is not to be confused with the plot, it's not the topic of your book. It's really the overarching position or argument or point that you are making to your reader.
[00:01:15] In a memoir, for example, it might be something like, I thought I had to be perfect to be worthy, but I learned that my scars are actually my strengths in nonfiction. Say you were writing a business book, it might be something like most entrepreneurs. Chase growth metrics, but sustainable success comes from alignment first.
[00:01:37] If you are writing a fiction novel, your macro idea could be, let's say if it's about a romance or something like that, could be. Love requires vulnerability, even when vulnerability feels like it could destroy you. So you can see your macro idea is really like the why behind your entire book. It's the why for why you wanted to write it in the first place, and it's what holds everything together.
[00:02:05] And in today's episode. I'm gonna show you how to uncover your macro idea. Let's dive in. Hi, I'm Vanessa Barrington, also known as the book doula, founder for Healing House Publishing, psychic Medium, and a woman on a mission to heal the world through stories. If you're a healer, coach, creative, or expert, I help you turn your.
[00:02:29] Story into a published book and a global movement that builds authority, impact, and legacy. This is not a writing podcast. It's a show where I explore voice, truth, spirituality, and what it really takes for you to trust yourself and share your story with the people who most need it. This is the Vanessa Barrington Show.
[00:02:50] Hello and welcome to episode 22 of the Vanessa Barrington Show. Now let's talk all about macro idea. This is a really big topic, and I wanna just say to you, the reason I wanna dive into this today is because when you know your macro idea. Everything else about your book writing process becomes so much easier from the writing part to the editing part, to the promotional and the publishing part.
[00:03:18] Your chapter outlines write themselves because you're gonna know within each chapter what it needs to demonstrate. Your reader knows what they're walking away with. You find that your writing comes so much easier. You're not meandering or info dumping because every single scene, every story, every concept is anchored back to that central idea.
[00:03:38] But here's the hard truth. If you do not know your macro idea before you start writing, you are likely going to spend months, possibly even years circling, revising, wondering why something feels off. Clarity on your macro idea is the difference between finishing a book and abandoning it halfway through, and that's why I really wanted to dive into this today 'cause it's such an important topic.
[00:04:05] So first of all, I wanna talk about stage one of this process, which is really composting your ideas. Patty Smith talks about this beautiful concept of composting, and I love this metaphor because it's exactly what your brain needs to do with your ideas. When you're first starting out. I want you to imagine you're planting seeds, you throw ideas onto the soil, whether it's a memory, a concept, a what if question, a moment that changed you in your life and you don't judge it.
[00:04:36] You don't force it into a neat structure at this stage. You just compost it. You let it turn over. This is the first phase of conception. What I teach in my book birthing method, it's where you wanna gather everything up, write it down, carry a little notebook. When you wake up at three o'clock in the morning with an idea, write that down.
[00:04:57] When you see something in the supermarket that triggers a memory or a concept, you jot it down. When you're in the shower and you get those downloads, you just capture it. You wanna be just gathering information. When you're in this stage, it's really important that you are nourishing that soil. I don't want you editing, I don't want you trying to organize anything.
[00:05:16] You're just collecting ideas. Now, this phase can take a day. It can take. Two days. It can take weeks. It could even take months. And look, I'm gonna just say to you, if you've been in this phase for a little while, that's not a problem. Okay? That's exactly how it's supposed to work. Your ideas need time to ferment.
[00:05:37] Okay? Once you've composted for an I for a while, and again, I want you to trust the timeline, it's time to then start to ask the hard questions. These questions will help you separate the signal from the noise and identify your actual macro idea. So I've got a couple of questions for you when you're in this phase where you can really then start to hone in and determine what is your actual idea for this book.
[00:06:06] So the first question you might like to consider is, what is your overarching argument, position or point? Like what do you believe about life or business? Love, resilience, identity, trauma, whatever your book is, exploring. What truth do you want to hand to your reader at the end of this book? And if you're not sure, something you could ask yourself is.
[00:06:28] If I could whisper one thing to someone who is going through that thing that I went through, or someone who believes what I used to believe, what would I say to them? What would I want them to know? Your second question that you wanna consider is, what did you learn to know that? What was the journey? So what did you have to perhaps unlearn or understand to arrive at that truth?
[00:06:50] This is really gold because it becomes the spine of your entire book. Now the third question. Once you've got that information, I want you to start thinking about the main instances, the main scenes, the main memories or things that taught you that particular lesson. Now, it's really key here that you don't list absolutely everything.
[00:07:11] This is just about the pivotal moments, what we call in narrative. The turning points, the scenes where something shifted in you, the things that changed everything. And then what you wanna look at is what are the main memories or ideas or examples that supported that learning? This is where you get really specific, these become your chapters, your stories, your examples, and then of course there's that final layer.
[00:07:38] And this one is so crucial. It really can be the thing that trips a lot of first time writers up because it can be hard for us to see our blind spots and hard for us to understand, especially if we're writing about a transformational journey. What that emotional takeaway is, this is the crucial part. So the question is, what is the emotional content?
[00:07:59] What does each scene or story need to make the reader feel so that they arrive at your truth? This is the reader's takeaway. Okay? It's not just the lesson. It's the feeling of the lesson. It's that embodied understanding. Now, the next stage in your brainstorming process is where you may then find, you've still got multiple ideas and they might all feel worthy, but you can only write one book at a time.
[00:08:28] I mean, you can choose to write multiple. But it's probably gonna be difficult. Okay. So you wanna really hone your macro idea down into one key focus. So how do you choose If you're at this stage, I want you to choose the thing that you are most passionate about right now. Not the thing that feels safer, not the thing that might be more marketable.
[00:08:51] The thing that makes you a lighter up. The one that if you are honest with yourself, you can't not write about. That feeling that you have of inevitability is like your compass. Okay? And here's the permission I want to give you. The other ideas aren't going anywhere. They're sitting there composting away, just waiting for you, and you're not abandoning them, right?
[00:09:12] You are honoring the one that is most alive in you right now. And that is really important because when you start there. That allows you to finish that and then move on to the next one. Let me show you how this works. Okay. So say someone comes to me with this idea, like, let's say I wanna write a book about divorce that is a topic.
[00:09:33] It is not a macro idea, and let me show you why it's not okay. So I would then ask the questions like, what did your divorce teach you about yourself? That person might say, well, that's when I realized, you know, I was stronger than I thought that I chose myself, even though it terrified me to walk away.
[00:09:54] And then I might ask that particular client, what's the truth that you really want your reader to know now? And what they may say is something like that, leaving something broken wasn't a failure. It's self-respect and there's strength in that. Now we have a macro idea. The book becomes no longer just my divorce story.
[00:10:18] It becomes a narrative about how breaking what's broken can actually be an act of love towards yourself. See how that macro idea can now be the anchor that shapes every single chapter of the book. Every story that client of mine tells should serve that truth, and her reader then walks away not having just heard a lovely story or a sad story, but having felt a transformation.
[00:10:45] And that is how you determine a macro idea that's actually gonna move people. Now this applies to your main character and the concept you've got for a fixed. Book book as much as it does if you're writing a nonfiction or a real life story like memoir or whatever. Now, one last thing I wanna call out here.
[00:11:06] You can only write one page at a time, okay? And that's an old adage. You've probably heard it many, many times. But it is absolutely true, and the same is true here. You don't have to see the entire book clearly. Right now at this beginning stage. You just need to identify the macro idea. That's it. From that, everything else unfolds, and you really need to trust yourself in this process and trust that you're being guided.
[00:11:31] I talk all the time about. The fact that we write in a spiral, and obviously we've only got so much time in this episode, we can go into it. This is, we're just scraping the surface. This is just the beginning, right? But if you are really ready to nail your macro idea, if this is something that you would like.
[00:11:48] To do with support and with clarity with someone who's walked the path before. I really would love to invite you to come along to an upcoming free live training where I'm gonna show you exactly how to write your book in 30 days. And if you know your story matters, and if you can feel that book wanting to come through, I'd encourage you to come along.
[00:12:08] This is your moment, so jump into the show notes before we wrap up today's episode. You can check there for the link and register for that live training. I am gonna be there with you every step of the way. I can t say to you, hand on heart, having supported so many people through this process, the macro idea is often very unclear for people at the beginning of this process, and there is nothing wrong with that.
[00:12:31] Okay. That's why that composting part is so important. But oftentimes as well, we need to write some elements in order to then start to dive further into the transformation and the narrative arc that's asking them to come through. But I really hope that this was helpful for you today and that I, we've started to scrape that surface around the macro idea.
[00:12:54] If you have found this episode useful, if it has shifted something for you. If you have now gone off and brainstormed and you've found, oh my gosh, I've had all these aha moments, I would love to know. I love, love reading every single one of your reviews, and also you can slide into my dm, so come and hang out on Instagram.
[00:13:13] That's a main place I hang out, and you can find me at book_doula.au. I would love to know if you found this episode useful. I would love to know whether or not you feel like you need to go back and maybe revisit your book idea based on what I've shared here today. But hopefully you now understand the difference between a topic and a macro idea.
[00:13:37] And of course, once you have this, I promise you don't skip this step. Guys, this is the part that's really going to make the foundation and the whole structure for your book. So much more powerful, so much easier, and so much simpler to write and really will transform the depth of your writing, the resonance you get with your readers because you're no longer, as I shared the example, writing a divorce book for example.
[00:14:04] You're actually getting to the heart of what it is that you want, say. Alrighty, guys, that's it from me for this week. I hope that you have found this episode useful. Don't forget to tag me in your posts. I love seeing you guys when you're out and about listening to this. Stay cool. Have a beautiful week ahead and I will see you next week.
[00:14:24] Back in your ears with the Vanessa Barrington Show. Have a great weekend guys. See ya.
