Why. One of the five Ws we learn about in grade school and the motivation behind any goal. Why defines the reasons we stay up late writing and sacrifice weekends revising. Why can be the motivator during desperate periods of self-doubt. A powerful why can ignite the beginning, traverse the middle, and take you through to the end.
The Exciting Beginning
A mediocre why can get you through the beginning. That spark of an idea, the first sight of a character or a setting or a whole story arc. The tingle in your brain as the magical first glimpse teems with the possibilities of the idea limited only by the bounds of your imagination. Like a shiny new toy, the idea gleams in the sunlight full of hope.
The mediocre why, say “Because I have this good idea and need to write it down” only adds fuel to the fire of excitement. It stays in your mind needling away at every thought. The first words or paragraphs come to you and the why almost doesn’t matter. The propulsion of the beginning is fueled by the inertia of the originating idea blasting forward.
However, as the initial excitement wanes a mediocre why will not make up for the vacuum left in its wake. The writing of yesterday or last week, full of passion, has slipped away, replaced by the slog of daily or weekly writing. The idea, once as shiny as gold, now dulls as a patina shades its luster. It is here, in the doldrums, that a good why is mandatory. Where the mediocre why fails to light a spark, the good why still burns bright feeding steam to the engine driving forth into the middle.
The Frothy Middle
No matter how good the roadmap. No matter how planned the journey. There will be a time, roughly 33,000 words into a novel, that panic will set in. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. You cannot remember what the excitement of the beginning even felt like. Every time you set about to write the doubt of its being any good haunts every word. What was once so clear in your mind muddles and there is no path forward.
A good why, say “Because I will not die with the regret of never finishing a book” can help in these tough times. This why will rekindle passion and provide motivation as you traipse through the middle of your novel. Or this why can lift spirits when you receive rejections for submitted work. The middle comes in any endeavor and these long hours of the process are often the ones an audience will never see but are crucial to the final product.
Without a good why it is easy to let the idea die to join the graveyard of discarded drafts. The frothy middle separates the dilettante from the serious writer. Yet, the good why is still no match for the powerful why. This is the why that shines brightly in the darkest of places like a lighthouse blazing the path forward into the end.
The Grateful End
A powerful why stands on its own. It states to the world its intentions and reason for being. Something like “I will support myself with full-time writing in three years” or “I will publish a best seller” or “I will be internationally known for my writing”. All of these why’s tell you something about the person making the statement. They explain why this person would spend days of time writing, editing, rewriting, editing more, and subjecting themselves to criticism and rejection.
The powerful why is important because it is the motivation to go on when everything seems to be against you. It is the reason for all the struggle that goes along with writing. It isn’t always an uphill battle. There are many wonderful days of writing where the words flow and every twist in the plot is pure genius. But these days are inevitably followed by self-doubt and pity parties. It is the sine curve (curse?) of life.
Neil Gaiman in Art Matters says “Something that worked for me was imagining that where I wanted to be (an author, primarily of fiction, making good books, making good comics, and supporting myself through my words) was a mountain. A distant mountain. My Goal. And I knew that as long as I kept walking towards the mountain I would be alright.” He goes on to write about saying no to some offers and jobs because, in the end, they were taking him further away from his goal. Taking him further away from his why.
Find a powerful why and the goals will be clear. Many best-selling authors didn’t become famous off their first book. Or second. Or third. It was persistence and a powerful why that drove them forward when all other reasons failed.
To your why.
Postscript:
This blog was admittedly fluffy. There was a lot of flowery language and presumably too many metaphors. What I wanted to convey is defining a strong reason for why you write can be the difference between success and failure. We all have those days where it seems like nothing is going right or that everything we write is shit. Hell, many big-name authors Tweet about it all the time. If they struggle, why can’t we? It’s part of the process. But when struggle threatens to mire us in the quicksand of self-pity and self-defeatism, we must remind ourselves of our great and powerful WHY.
Good luck writing this month.
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