Post 1

Author: Nola Published: over 9 years ago
Tags: creativity, calling, motivation, encouragement, inspiration Category: Writing tips

Why Do You Write?

When I was in the fourth grade, I wrote a story that included the immortal line, ‘I like my mother because almost everything I ask for I get’. My list included a Seekers’ music book, a Mary Poppins record album and a bookcase. More than 40 years later, I still love books, music and my mother, though my writing is a little more varied. Poetry, songs, true stories, Christian inspirational pieces, magazine articles, and short fiction all get the chance to run around my literary track. I’ve even started a novel. With such a smorgasbord of writing pursuits, however, it’s easy to lose sight of the overall goal. Why do I write?

I can honestly say it’s not for the money. It’s nice to be paid for something I’ve written, but I don’t have delusions of becoming the next J. K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer. Unless of course I can somehow work a wizard or vampire into my parallel narrative about a shipwreck on Sable Island.

I think my motivation is closer to that expressed by Stephen King: ‘Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous … or making friends. In the end it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well’ (From On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft).

I want others to laugh or be enthralled or caught up in a creative web of intrigue. I want to share something that’s touched my life in the hope that it will also touch others. I want to comfort, instruct, confront or get people thinking about different possibilities. All of these in turn impact me. I perk up when I write a funny piece, I feel challenged when I debate a thorny issue, I learn something when I write an instructive article, I gain a greater understanding of a situation when I process it on the page.

Writing is not something I have a choice about. I feel that I have been called to write, but it doesn’t stop there. I’ve also been called to encourage others to write. Everyone has a story inside just waiting to burst out, but it sometimes needs a little prompting.

In my weekly blog posts, I’ll be discussing tips to help others on their writing journeys. I’m not sharing these tips because I have it all together as a writer, but because I’m still on that learning curve myself and want to share what I’ve discovered so far. Will you come on the journey with me? Let’s encourage each other to be the best writers we can be.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear what motivates you to write.

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Posted over 9 years ago by Cathie Sercombe

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