Do You Know Why You Write?

I firmly believe you can only be a writer if you love the act of writing. If you listed all the reasons people write, this would be number 1 on my list. 

My List of Reasons People Write:

1. love writing
2. an internal urge
3. a dream of being published
4. someone pushed them into it
5. to earn a living
6. fame
7. recognition
8. word people
9. to prove they can do it
10. to offer something to others

Go through the list. How many apply to you? Which one would you list as your top choice? 

The poster today makes number 1 the most important one, just as I did. The part about becoming famous or making a lot of money should be side benefits to the deep love you have for writing. 

If you're in this game only for the fame and earnings, I think your writing is going to lack something that people who love to write have. Those who have a real passion for writing allow it to emerge through the words they string together to create a story or essay.

Later this month, I am going to have a series of posts written by Guest Bloggers on the topic of why they write. I'm looking forward to learning what reasons they all have in common and some that perhaps only one of the group will give. 

Give some thought today to the reasons that you write. Put them in any order or list them as which ones are your top priorities. You may have others to add to the ten I shared with you. 

Quitters Don't Win

Haven't we all felt like quitting our writing journey now and then? The questions begin to swirl through your mind. Ones like:  How many years can I give this before it's time to bail? What is my percentage of acceptances over rejections? Does anybody but me care about what I write? Do I have any Followers of my work at all? Am I a better writer today than I was ten years ago? What writing goals have I achieved? The list could go on and on.

When that Self-doubt creeps in, spiral back to the days when you first decided to write. You were excited about trying something new, weren't you? You had high hopes, major goals, big dreams. Maybe you should create a poster showing the reasons you became a writer. Keep it where you can see it on a daily basis. When you're ready to throw up your hands and storm away from the writing path, study that poster. Carefully. Then assess your next step.

I ran across a short piece that I'd written earlier titled Why Bother? I used it in another post but it bears repeating today. This is what I wrote:

Does it appear that writing is meant to defeat a writer rather than buoy him/her to great heights? It may make you wonder why in the world you're beating your head against the writing wall if it is this hard to become a widely published writer. Why bother?

We bother, and I include myself here, because we love to write. We bother because we have something to say. We bother because we may want to prove something to ourselves. We bother because we know that the more we write, the more we grow as a writer. We bother because we've had positive feedback from readers. We bother because we've had some encouraging rejections from editors. We bother because we've had enough acceptances to know that we are not a washout as a writer. 

Now, aren't those enough reasons to stay on the writing journey? I think so. Just keep in mind that there is no express elevator. You move up one step at a time.

Dinty Moore, author of several books on writing said "The rewards of publication are fleeting, while the rewards of a regular writing practice are countless."  There's more to this writing game than being published so step back and look at the beginning, middle and end results before you storm away from something you probably love.