by Blythe Daniel @BlytheDaniel

We ask this question a lot. We may not even recognize it anymore. We ask someone who has just lost someone they love, “What do you need?” or we may ask a child who is hurt, “Do you need anything?” We are suggesting there is a need and we hope to fill it. We don’t always know what the need is, but we sense there’s a way we can help.

This is parallel to our writing. Whether we are writing a story or an inspirational book to encourage someone in their walk with God, we have to be able to hit the need, or as we say in publishing, “the felt need”, right off the bat. The need drives the reason for the book.

It’s easier to think about needs in a story since there are characters that project both the need and the answer to the need. In a non-fiction book, we perceive the need of the person who will pick up the book but most of the time they want to know what to do about their need rather than have someone direct them or puppeteer them into specific action. They want to feel that a writer has empathy and also will give them ways to interpret their need so they can decide how best to address it.

Let’s look at this more closely. Who are the characters you like to write into a story? Typically there is at least one who struggles. How do we identify with them versus the one who doesn’t seem to wrestle with anything or share in any struggles? Relatability is key for both fiction and non-fiction. That’s where you’re going to really hit the felt need. Even in story, the felt need could be the need to learn a lesson that the characters will walk through over the course of the story. In non-fiction, there is a reason that a reader will look to someone who may be considered an authority on the subject or has lived the topic themselves and can speak to the need a reader has because the author works with, ministers to, or helps others on a weekly basis. They either live the need or help speak into the need.

A good fiction or non-fiction book will be able to subtlety address the need without forcing it onto the reader who can recognize the thread that will carry through the entire book. A need can be connected to an actual event in a person’s life, a thought they express, or an action they see in someone else. Individuals buy books based on a need that they or someone they know has. How you express the need in your writing is based on your motive, your style, and your passion. These three elements help you fill a need that only you can fill.

Felt needs could be anything from:

• Finding life again after significant loss
• Not losing faith when you don’t have what you prayed for or expected
• Being willing to forgive and move toward someone who has hurt you
• Gaining adventure and being willing to risk through a story you read
• Overcoming loneliness in friendships
• Starting over when life feels unsolvable on your own
• Seeing redemption in a story that feels approachable for your own life

The more specific you can be in the felt need the easier it will be for an agent or editor to see what you are speaking to in a way that others haven’t. In addition to having a strong felt need, being able to show how and why it’s different than other books on the same topic is central to your book being well-received. What are you saying that others haven’t? How is your storyline different?

We shouldn’t be surprised that God addresses how he’ll provide for our own needs and helps us address the needs of others, both spiritually and physically. Sometimes it’s by showing up for someone. Sometimes it’s through a phone call or a text. Sometimes it’s through a book that can give them a chance to read your words over and over again.

It’s good to remember that God meets our needs as we try to meet the needs of others. One of my favorite biblical books is Isaiah. In it, I  find this verse where God promises to meet our needs:

Isaiah 58:11 (NIV) says:

The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

While we are trying to discern what needs we can meet, we would do well to remember that God is the only one who can fully satisfy our needs. He is the one who strengthens us when life comes crumbling down around us, just like what was happening in the book of Isaiah. Walls were literally coming down. And that’s what we need to have happen in our books if we are going to be able to help meet the needs of others by being vulnerable and focused on how we can allow God to use us to encourage someone else. We won’t run dry if we continue coming back to him as our source.

What do you need to do in order to identify the felt need you are to champion? What type of writing best suits your perception of this need? Do you need to join a mentoring group or seek someone who can help guide you toward writing to a specific need?

In this season, where do you see the greatest need that keeps you up at night (or wakes you up early in the morning)? These are some questions you can ask yourself as you look at where God wants you to line up a felt need with your writing. We know there is a world that’s hungry to know God – they just have to know where to find him. Will your book be a way they can find him?

Blythe Daniel is a literary agent and marketer and has been in publishing for over 20 years. She has written for Proverbs 31 Ministries, Focus on the Family, Ann Voskamp, and Christian Retailing. She and her mother Dr. Helen McIntosh are the authors of Mended: Restoring the Hearts of Mothers and Daughters (Harvest House Publishers).

www.theblythedanielagency.com; www.ourmendedhearts.com