When you’re writing a book, it can be easy to lose sight of why you even wanted to write it in the first place. It’s a long process, and it’s possible you lose your motivation along the way.
This is when it’s important for us to remember why we write. What motivates us to write a book?
In this article, we focus on the four main reasons we write stories along with questions to help you remember why you started writing in the first place.
This will help you boost your writing motivation and push through moments of self-doubt.
Why it’s important to understand your writing motivation
If you pursue writing and want to write a book, writing is something natural for you. It’s something you want to do. Something that brings you joy.
However, it won’t always be that way.
Writing can be hard. And there will be times when you wonder why you even bothered to start in the first place. You will question your idea and wonder whether you’re cut out to be a writer at all.
When you don’t know why it is you write your story, quitting will feel like the better option.
If you want to stay motivated to write, you need to know what fueled you to start writing in the first place. That will keep you from quitting when things get tough and will help you to make time for writing your story.
Why do you write?
We all have different reasons for why we write. And this can also be a mixture of reasons. For instance, my reason is to create something impactful that lasts. But I also do it to discover meaning and make sense of myself.
The four reasons below aren’t even all the reasons possible, but they should give you some idea of what your reason is.
1. To make an impact on the world
Don’t ever let anyone tell you stories are meaningless; they aren’t. How many times have you read a book that you feel changed you completely? Or where you felt like you learned something new about yourself? Or did you ever read a book that helped you process certain emotions or experiences?
We all have.
And there’s something empowering in knowing that the words we put on the page can be that meaningful to someone reading them.
We leave a mark. We create a change. We bring something new to life.
All because we keep creating and sharing our stories.
2. To discover meaning
This point is somewhat related to the former. Only here it’s more about how writing a story impacts ourselves. We all like to find meaning and purpose in this life.
And perhaps creating something from nothing is something that brings you meaning. It’s something that tells you something about yourself.
And if writing a story can change how we see ourselves and the world around us, why won’t that be true for the person reading it?
3. To process our emotions
Writing stories can also be incredibly cathartic. We all go through periods of grief, sadness, or stress. We all experience things that impact us.
It can be incredibly helpful to process your emotions by writing a story. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a fictional story or a memoir based on real events. What matters is that it helps you explore what you feel and how you’re dealing with the situation.
4. To make a name for ourselves
This may seem a bit egotistical, but it’s not. Why wouldn’t we want to be remembered after death? Why wouldn’t we want to be the next Jane Austen or Mark Twain?
You don’t want to just make a living with your writing; you want to leave a mark on generations to come.
And if you write something that’s also impactful and meaningful, why wouldn’t you want to make a name for yourself?
Discover your why
I hope that the reasons above have given you some idea about your why. As you can see, many of the reasons have some overlap. And it’s possible we write for more than one reason.
To understand why you’re writing your story, ask yourself the following:
What value does it give me when I write?
What do I hope to achieve when I publish my book?
What makes it worthwhile to keep writing?
For whom am I writing this book?
Dig deep and take some time to think about it.
Once you know why you write, write it down somewhere you can see when you’re writing. Whenever you’re in doubt or feel like giving up, look at your why. Feel the truth of it. And keep going.
This will undoubtedly help you finish your novel!