What is Your Worldview – It’s Key

Stories of the heart have molded you and now the recurring themes resonate with who you are and create your worldview.

Your worldview is an overall way of looking at the world and how the recurring themes resonate with your readers. It’s key in connecting mysteries with mystery readers, romances with romance readers and so on.

If your lists (See Here – How to Use your Favorite Book to Learn how to Write) do not connect and you’re struggling with your writing, this may explain the problem. Don’t write to the market. It’s fickle and ever-changing. You should be telling stories you feel compelled to write. That’s where your passion lies.

What does worldview mean?

A worldview is a collection of attitudes, values, stories, and expectations about the world around us, which inform our every thought and action. Worldview is expressed in ethics, religion, philosophy, scientific beliefs, and so on (Sire, 2004)

A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group.

The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.

A comprehensive, esp. personal, philosophy or conception of the world and of human life.

The definition of a worldview is an overall way of looking at the world.

EXAMPLE

For Example, A person who is cheerful and optimistic about everything is someone who might be described as having a positive worldview or optimist. A person who sees the world as a glass half-empty would have a negative worldview. We would those types, pessimists. 

An optimist may write encouraging, hopeful, things-that-will-always-work-out kind of books, whereas the pessimists may write the opposite. Your worldview has a lot to do with the genre and themes you are drawn to. 

There are seven elements of a worldview.

1. View of human nature. (How do you view human nature in general, in need of salvation, in need of annihilation, in need of correction, etc.)
2. View of the good life. (What makes up the good life? Overcoming a sickness, delivering humankind from evil, reuniting lost love, solving a mystery, capturing the bad guy?)
3. Equality with others. ( What helps to balance the scales of wrongdoing? Paying for a certain crime, taking up for someone being bullied, organizational tips for an overburdened mom?)
4. Responsibilities to others. (What do you feel responsible for? What drives you, makes you upset? What do you feel needs to be done to help others who are hurting, confused, or feeling alone?)
5. Relationship between the individual and the state/of higher authority. (government and society) (Community and religion) (Couples and family) (Employees and Employer) (Student and School Admin) 
6. Relationship of humans with nature. (Man vs River, Man vs. wild animals, Man vs Virus, Man vs Space)
7. Sources of ethical wisdom. Who or what is the source of wisdom?

A worldview makes you draw a line in the sand about a certain subject. What are you passionate about? What kind of movement will your words create? 

Begin by focusing your message on what you’re passionate about and why it matters. That’s where all great writing starts and where all important movements start.

NEXT, SEE – WHAT’S THE PROBLEM, EVERY STORY NEEDS ONE.