3 Tips To Help Find Your Writing “Why”

We all have reasons for the things we do, and most of those reasons stem from one thing: our “why.” Your “why” is the driving force behind every choice you make and every action you take.

Having a “why” means having a dream; a goal; something you want to achieve in your life. For some people it’s making a living from writing, for others it’s getting a novel published and for others it’s something else entirely.

But unless you know what your writing “why” is, you’ll never take your writing seriously.

Why You Should Know Your Writing “Why”

When you don’t know the reasons why you want to write, you’ll never get motivated enough to do it. You’ll continue to feel “blocked” and won’t have any creative output.

Like a car needs fuel to make it from point A to point B, a writer needs to have a driving force behind why she wants to write. That driving force will be the motivator that makes you put your ass in a chair and write as often as you can for as long as you can.

If you don’t have that “why” to light your fire, your motivation to reach your goal will eventually fizzle out and you’ll give up. Without a writing “why” you won’t have what it takes to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

Do you know what your writing “why” is?

For Example

My writing “why” is to become financially independent so I can continue to work for myself for the rest of my career, and also to have location freedom, so I don’t have to live in one place in order to get my work done.

That’s the driving force behind every word I write for every single client. It’s the driving force behind every writer I coach. It’s the fuel that’s helped me keep my blogs going and all the other stuff I do for my business.

Without that “why” to keep me grounded, I’d never have made it this far as a writer.

Sure, I’ve had moments where I doubted myself and doubted my dream (we all go through that from time-to-time), but in the end my writing “why” is a million times stronger than my fear ever could be.

Discovering Your Writing “Why”

If you’re not sure what your driving force is, you probably don’t take your writing as seriously as you’d like. And that’s OK, because you can choose to do things different from this moment on. Leave the past in the past and start fresh.

You can do that by discovering your writing “why.” Here are 3 tips to help you:

• Think About What You Love–The people and pets and fill-in-the-blank that you love are usually a good indicator for what your “why” is. But is it for you? Does wanting to provide for your family fuel your writing? Is spending more time with the people you love your writing “why?”
• Remember Your Dreams–You remember your dreams? They’re those things you used to have before you let society and the publishing industry come in and steal them from you. Before you got distracted by the bullshit status quo, what did you dream about? What did you want to be? What did you want to achieve?
• Brainstorm Your Reasons–Grab a piece of paper and write down every single reason you want to write. Doesn’t matter how stupid or vane it seems, just write it down. If you write because you want to be the next J.K. Rowling, that’s great–write it down. If you write because you want a place to get all the thoughts in your head out, that’s fine too, just write it down. After you’ve finished your list, review it. Which reasons really jump out at you? Which ones reach deep to your heart? These reasons are your writing “why.”

Once you know what your writing “why” is, something magical will happen. You’ll start to take your writing more seriously. You’ll start to see yourself as a writer, a writer who can do this and reach all your dreams.

And on those days when you feel “blocked” or like you just can’t write, think about your writing “why” and focus on how it makes you feel and why you want to achieve. That will help you push through and get your writing done.

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What’s your writing “why?” What fuels you to sit down and write?