What motivates us to want to write? It's about asking ourselves tough questions. What does motivation mean to me? Why do I want to write?
A writer’s block, burnout, and a lack of creativity are just some of the common struggles a writer experiences during the week. Pile on some rejection (from clients, publications, a mean troll), no one reading our stuff and a fear of putting ourselves out there again, it’s no wonder writers find it tough to keep going.
However, we pick ourselves up again and again, trudging along that writer’s path, discovering moments of creativity, bursts of inspiration, stories of greatness and at times, lulls of mediocrity.
I recently wrote a post where I detailed what happened when I published 25 articles in one month (and accepted by publications). One of the readers prefaced her question with “Ooooh, deep question” and asked,
“What motivates us to want to write?”
Deep indeed. I wrote back, telling her that I’ll need some time to think about it and thanking her for giving me an idea to write about.
To answer a question required me to ask myself more questions
How do you define motivation?
What does that word mean to you given your context and lens?
Motivation is different than inspiration. Inspiration is like happiness and motivation is like fulfillment; one is fleeting and the other is long-lasting. You can’t depend on inspiration to write as you wouldn’t depend on being happy to live with purpose.
Motivation comes from within, our deepest desires that feed the actions we take every day to reach our dreams. It’s the reasons why we do things, connecting our values and beliefs to our hearts, minds and souls. It’s the slow-moving engine that is fueled by our hunger. Hunger to work hard. Hunger to take on challenges. Hunger to hustle. This type of hunger burns a hole in our stomachs. It’s insatiable in which no matter how much you are fed, you have the drive to keep wanting to eat more, to eat bigger and better things.
That’s motivation.
Now that I’ve defined what motivation means to me, how and where do you find it? Again, I had to ask myself more questions.
Why did you start writing in the first place? Was there a specific incident or a series of experiences that drew you to writing? How does writing help you live a purposeful life?
What happens when you are in a creative flow state? How do you feel when you’ve finished writing a piece?
Why do you keep writing? Where’s that inner drive to put words onto paper coming from? How does the act of writing align with your values, beliefs and priorities?
Everyone has a different response to these questions but here’s how I would answer them.
I’m eternally grateful to have the opportunity to be vocal
As an Asian female who was born and raised in Canada, I am eternally grateful that I live in a country where I have the opportunity to write and share my words with the world without having to jump through hoops or cross any red tape.
If I was born in another time and/or place, things would have been a lot different. The Internet may not have existed. I may have needed to kill tons of trees just get one article in. Waiting for a rejection letter to arrive via snail mail would have made all that anxiety and anticipation ten times worst.
As a woman, I may not have learned how to write. And if I did, I may have been laughed at, ridiculed for thinking I could be taken seriously, forced to write under a male name and never given real credit for the work that I published.
I feel a sense of privilege to share that voice
I don’t take my ability to write for granted. My paternal grandmother didn’t get to go to school; she didn’t learn to read or write. Although she was illiterate, she managed to raise 8 successful children, instilling values of humility and pragmatism which I am grateful to have inherited.
Whenever I hit that publish button, I imagine my female ancestors linking arms with me, joining together to have their voices heard. I want to make them proud; it’s a privilege that empowers me to write every day.
I’ll die but my stories won’t
As a wife and mother of 2 young children, I don’t want to leave earth when I’m not ready…so many conversations to be held, memories to create, milestones to experience, hugs to give, and kisses to receive; however, I can’t control what the universe has planned for me.
Writing gives me comfort in what I’m leaving behind. The only person who can really hold me accountable is myself so every word I put down motivates me to keep going. The more I write, the more the next generation can understand where they came from.
Knowing all of this is available on a digital permanent record for my children, their children and so forth gives me comfort, that I am leaving behind somewhat of a legacy for them to know who I am, my history, life lessons, stories about my parents and grandparents, their ancestors.
I write to help recover from perfectionism
As an avid journaler who has kept a diary since she was in Grade school, I’ve used writing as a means of therapy even before I knew what therapy meant. I write to make the irrational rational, putting words onto paper to make the abstract thoughts and feelings into concrete sentences and paragraphs.
Writing is an effective way for (recovering) perfectionists like myself to balance their emotions. The right brain is home to emotions and intuition. Perfectionists are often in a state of stress (trying to meet impossible demands and constantly never satisfied), and so their right brain is in chronic overdrive. The left brain is home to logic and reasoning. Writing helps activate the left brain, countering the emotional side of the overworked right brain. During the lowest points in my life, writing wasn’t just a hobby, it was a lifeline.
I can only improve if I keep writing
Had you ever read the stuff that you wrote just a couple of years ago? And compared that to your last published work?
The tone, the type of words, choosing to use active versus passive voice depending on the intent of the message, the flow of sentences, the structure of how the article was written, how the story was introduced and how it ended…it’s amazing how much I’ve improved.
It’s rewarding to see my journey, documenting my writing ebbs and flows; however, I wouldn’t have seen the progress unless I had kept writing (and keep writing). Whenever I do a last read of my article before I hit publish, I feel a sense of accomplishment as my masterpiece is finally finished. I lean into that moment so that I can visualize that feeling the next time I don’t want to write.
I’m preparing to do this for a living
Although I currently don’t make my living writing, my plan is to leave my 9 to 5 and start freelancing. Writing is a skill that gets dull when it’s not being used. You know, use or lose it, like the blade of an ax.
When I start freelancing, I don’t want to get stuck sharpening my ax when I should be chopping down trees, getting wood for a fire to cook my pot of stew and building my cabin in the woods. I want to be able to jump into the deep end, writing fast and furious so that I’m not only keeping my head above water, I’m breaching with the whales.
I want to feel secure in the lifestyle that I desire
Money. Period.
But it’s not about earning lots of it, buying tons of stuff, experiences or feeding my ego whenever I log into my bank account. It’s about the lifestyle that I want to feel secure living in, having the freedom to work anywhere I want, not inside an office, not expected to be in during specific hours on specfic days. And writing allows me to do that.
Since I was 16 years old, all my jobs involved having an employer. My parents taught me to be financially responsible; money does not grow on trees. I don’t like paying bills late, spending beyond my means or going into debt. So if I’m not an employee, collecting a paycheck every two weeks, then I better be hustling, producing, busting my ass, earning an income to make those payments on time.
I want to lead by example for my kids
Having a supportive husband doesn’t mean I’m going to sit back and twiddle my thumbs while he brings home the bacon. Being independent and financially contributing to the household is part of my core values.
I want my kids to see their mom stumble her way through starting a freelance business, land her first and 100th client. I want to walk the talk, be the living example that when you work hard enough, it is possible to earn a living doing what you love.
Bottom line: motivation is within us
It lives in your guts. It breathes through your soul. It beats with your heart. It’s the iron in your fire, not the kindling or the tinder. It takes asking yourself the tough questions, getting raw and real about your core values and beliefs to uncover why you want to write in the first place.
Writing takes effort. I’m not going to lie; some days I want to throw my laptop to the ground in a fit of frustration. My mind’s jumbled; I can’t find the right words to start or I can’t seem to tie the whole article together. Might as well give up right? However, I take a breath, pausing to add fuel to the fire and tell myself, “You’re doing this because you want to.”
So Readers, why do you write? What keeps fuel in your fire?
