What is your motivation for writing?
My original motivation for writing was to earn a paycheck from home doing something I enjoyed. And it worked for many years. Then Amazon turned the bricks and mortar publishing industry on its head and the magazines I wrote for went belly up and I found myself without that paycheck.
I tried other means of making money writing. Ghostwriting. Book doctoring. Editing. Etc. They all brought in some money and a lot of headaches. Did you know that it’s easy to lose money doing those things? Very easy! And it’s hard work. So I decided I didn’t want to work my butt off to lose money.
So I found a publisher and started writing novels and I enjoy it greatly. Only problem is that I also must do the marketing and I suck at marketing.
But I’ve found that I want to continue writing whether I get that paycheck or not. Not because I have some fundamental, gut-deep urge to write because I don’t and never did. Nor because I must write or die because I can do many other things and be happy, thank you very much.
Rather I find I wish to continue because I’ve learned a lot about the craft and art of writing during the many years I’ve been at it and I find that I wish to continue to use those skills until they begin to wane. (Which, at my age, could be any day.)
I know how to put a story together. How to create viable characters. How to create a character arc that works. How to both create and describe a setting without the description intruding on the pace of the story. I know how to pace for best effect. I know how to do all the things that, put together, make up a decent story.
In other words, I know how to write and, darn it, I like doing something that I’m good at!
