Whenever you reach one of those
writer's roadblocks, it helps to take some time to reexamine what drives you to
write in the first place.
I submit, however, that
regardless of your reason(s) for being, or wanting to be, a writer, or what
kinds of writing you do, there is only one, true underlying motivator that will
consistently send you back to your keyboard, or prompt you to pick up a pen,
day after day: through your writing, you must want to change something.
If you don't, I believe you'll
remain stuck.
"No, I don't," you
might say. "I write because I want to make money." That might very
well be true. But think about it--*why* do you want to make money as a writer?
To leave your unfulfilling day job? To supplement your income so that you can
travel more, or redecorate your house? To enable you to support your children
through college, or your parents during old age? Note that all of these
purposes for making money provide you with the fiscal ability to make changes
in your life, hopefully for the better. Change is the goal, not money.
"Well, I write fiction. I
write solely to entertain." And what happens to your readers if you
succeed in entertaining them? You make them feel--you get them to laugh, cry or
wonder. You send spine- tingling shivers of fear through them with your
thrillers, warm them with your romance stories, entice them with your
mysteries, leave indelible imprints on their memories with your characters. You
change your readers; how they think or feel after they have read something
you've written differs from how they thought or felt before.
Perhaps you write technical
documents. In that case, you are looking to improve a process by clarifying it.
This means change. Or maybe you write articles that provide readers with
information they did not previously possess. More change. Copywriters want to
change lookers into buyers. Grantwriters want to persuade people or
organizations to support an endeavor they may have never heard of before. Business
proposals are written with the hope of fostering improvements within companies.
Do you confine your writing
solely to your journal, or specialize in first-person essays? What are you
looking for when you write about yourself, your experiences, your observations?
My guess is that you want to arrive at a more complete understanding of what
you saw, lived through and felt. You want to grow from the experience, or you
want your readers to think about something in a way they might never have done
before. Change.
This applies even to this
article. I want to help writers discover the real reason for writing, enable
you to refocus your energies and perhaps become more prolific and successful by
understanding why you do what you do. I hope I've succeeded in doing just that.
As a writer, you've got a talent
that many do not possess, and many admire. So don't just sit there. Write for a
change.
©2002 Mary Anne Hahn
About the author: Mary Anne Hahn
is editor and publisher of WriteSuccess, the free biweekly ezine of ideas,
information and inspiration for writers. To subscribe, mail to writesuccess-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Learn how to market your writing services to businesses and professionals right
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