Motivations for Writing

When I began writing I started reading a lot of books about the writing process, how to format novels, the hero’s journey, and other aspects of writing. The one thing that all the book pretty much agreed on was the fact that if a person wants to be a writer, they need to write every day. It doesn’t matter what they write; a chapter of a book, a short story, a poem, an article, or a blog post, it’s just that they have to write something every day.

Like a professional athlete training for game day or a musician practicing for a concert, writers have to keep their mind sharp and ready to go. Many of the books that I read had exercises or other trainings that an author could do to keep their mind in shape.

As a person that wanted to be a professional author, but yet had to keep a full time job, sometimes finding the time to write wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. I had to work, eat, exercise, spend time with family and friends, take care of all the basic chores, handle all the little things that come up in life, and sleep. Where was I supposed to find the time to write every day?

I often thought of the motivations that moved me to other things. What caused me to exercise for at least forty-five minutes every day? That was simple, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t feel as good and I wasn’t in shape when I wanted to go hiking or canoeing. What motivated me to read every day? That was also simple, if I didn’t, I could feel my mind getting sluggish and dull. Everything I was doing had a motivation behind it, I just needed to find one for my writing.

Throughout my life, I’ve always enjoyed captivating people’s mind with a story. I love watching their eyes glow just as I’m getting to the most exciting parts, or watch the emotion flow through their face as a hero loses something dear to them. I always knew that I could do that on a much grander scale if I was just able to get my words onto paper. The motivation for my writing came from the knowledge that I could influence people, I could make them think, entertain them, and bring a form of happiness to their lives.

The thought that kept me writing was the excitement that I felt every time I shared a story with a close friend. The motivation that I could move someone moved me to working even hard to achieve my goal of getting something published. I knew that I could have a career as a professional writer, join the elite class of authors who get to spend their days at their keyboards, creating worlds and characters, from wherever in the world they want to write from.

When I started my job with a local company in my hometown, I quickly realized that I would have even less time to work on my writing. That, even as I got closer to my goal of publishing a book, I was finding less and less time to work on my writing. I used every free moment I had, pushing almost everything else out of the way, to work to finish my first two books. It was a monumental task, but the motivation to live the life I wanted, to not have to answer to a boss, to not have to drive an hour to and from work each day, was the motivation that I needed to give the final push to finish my books.

The medium you write in doesn’t matter. You could write blogs, novels, articles, comic books, or plays, what matters is what drives you to write. What’s your motivation? Once you figure it out, write it out on a piece of paper and hang it near your writing desk. Look at that motivation every day, more than once a day. If you’re ever stuck or not sure what to write, look at that motivation. Once you know why you are writing, you will know how important it is to you. And if your writing is as important to you as mine is to me, then you too will easily have the motivation to write every day.

To see where my motivations took me, head over to www.leifericksonwriting.com and check out my books.