Writing Essentials: Know why you're writing

Your genre may decide it for you. I write "inspirational romance". Which is a fancy way of saying Christian love stories that feature God. And that is the most important part of my writing. If I cut out the faith message, or the faith journey of my characters, I'm sure I wouldn't be writing anything. I would lose my passion for it.

Since I see my writing as a way of communicating (and sometimes processing through) the ways God works in our lives, that is the root of why I write. And knowing that makes it easier for me to get my rear in the seat and write each day. I want to share God's love with people. I want people to be able to read a book and have God speak to their heart through it. I want them to read about someone else's struggle and know they're not the only person who has grieved, who has fought, who has loved.

Or I may ask myself why do I want to do it as a career and not a hobby? Do I want people to read what I've written? Do I want fame? (I'll just answer that as a pretty big 'no'). Do I want to make some money?

I'll be completely honest. There are times I sit down to write because I want to be able to bring in a second income for our family. But I don't actually want to change out of my pajamas and leave the house. (I'm all sorts of ambitious in that way). I like being home with our kids. I came to the realization that if I was going to be writing each day just for fun, I may as well do it and try to turn it into an income for the family. So some days, when I really, really want to catch up on the latest episode of Once Upon A Time, I think about what our family could do with a royalty check from a published book (I may rely heavily on visions of southern vacations during the winter months to get me motivated). And that gets me to open the laptop, and start typing.

Finally, I think about where I will be in one hour. Not one year. Not one day. In one hour. An hour from now, will watching that show have brought me closer to my goal and benefitted the family? Will typing five pages and pushing closer to The End mean I'm that much closer to being published? Or will doing a load of laundry and taking a nap get me closer to the life I want to be living? Honestly, sometimes laundry and a nap wins out. And that's OK. My family may need clean clothes and a mama who isn't exhausted and crabby. But most days, typing 1,000 words is going win out as the best use of that hour or two.

Those are the three motivators that will push me to get writing on the days I would rather do something else.

So how about you? What motivates you to write? Or to continue to pursue a goal, even when you don't feel like it?

Read part one of the series here:

Writing Essentials: Writing when the muse has packed her bags, hitched a ride, and left the country