One of the biggest challenges for writers, especially at the beginning of your journey or career, is dealing with the feeling that you have to write about everything.

After all, you have so many things you want to share! So many life experiences! So many things you’re learning now! So much happening in the world around you, and in your life personally!

But there is a disconnect between what you personally experience in the world, and what your reader needs from you. It’s important to pay attention to this, particularly if you want to build a career or have a business as a writer.

Why? Because your audience is going to expect one main message from you, for the most part.

You might have many things you want to say. You have a lot of messages and ideas that are important to you. But people only have space in their brains to associate you with one core thing.

You might be passionate about ten different things, but you can’t build a business around ten different things, at least not in the beginning. So it’s important to choose just one single core message.

If you look at any successful author, 95% of the time they have one basic message, or one basic viewpoint, they are sharing. Stephen King writes about the horror of life. Joanna Penn writes about resources for authors in her nonfiction. Ryan Holiday writes about stoicism. Michael Hyatt writes about productivity and leadership.

The cold, hard truth is that people are going to put you in a box as a writer. They are going to associate you with one core message or truth primarily. So it’s not only a good business practice to stick with that one thing, but it also makes your life as a writer much easier in the long run.

It doesn’t mean you can’t deviate from that one central message, but it does mean that for the most part, you’re going to be associated with that one thing, so choose carefully and use that to your advantage.