Tapping into WHY You're a Writer

Gena: 00:00:00

Why are you a writer?

Christopher: 00:00:01

Hey, we're going to talk about that today.

Christopher: 00:00:03

Welcome to the Writing Momentum podcast.

Christopher: 00:00:05

I'm Christopher Maselli here with my wife, Gena.

Christopher: 00:00:08

Hey, how's it going, Gena?

Gena: 00:00:09

It's going really well.

Christopher: 00:00:10

Today we're talking about finding your why as a writer.

Christopher: 00:00:15

That sounds like a cliche.

Gena: 00:00:16

It does.

Gena: 00:00:17

It sounds like a cliche.

Gena: 00:00:18

We actually wondered about a fancier or better way to talk about this, but

Gena: 00:00:23

when it came down to it, we really wanted to explore really helping

Gena: 00:00:28

understanding your why understanding your motivation is so important.

Christopher: 00:00:33

Yeah, so why?

Christopher: 00:00:35

So when you say understanding your why, you mean understanding

Christopher: 00:00:37

your reason for doing this.

Gena: 00:00:39

It's understanding your reason.

Gena: 00:00:42

Is it about sharing your knowledge?

Gena: 00:00:44

Is it about giving hope to people in the world or in a specific market?

Gena: 00:00:50

Is it about sharing something you love?

Gena: 00:00:54

All of these things, whether you write nonfiction or fiction, are important

Gena: 00:00:58

for you to latch onto so that you will do the best job that you can do.

Christopher: 00:01:04

I think sometimes that we think, Oh, it should be easy to know this.

Christopher: 00:01:08

It should be easy to know exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing.

Christopher: 00:01:10

But it's very easy the more you write to find yourself writing things that

Christopher: 00:01:14

you're like Why does this matter?

Christopher: 00:01:17

What am I doing this for?

Christopher: 00:01:18

It's good to tap into that reason On not only the job itself as being

Christopher: 00:01:25

a writer, but also on an individual project basis Why am I writing this book?

Christopher: 00:01:31

Why is this important to me, right?

Christopher: 00:01:33

And and so I I assume there's a lot a lot of benefits to knowing what your why is.

Gena: 00:01:38

Yeah, there's definitely some benefits I think the thing is when

Gena: 00:01:42

you are A lot of people talk to me and they'll say, I want to be a writer.

Gena: 00:01:47

I have always wanted to write a book.

Gena: 00:01:49

But until you really latch on to that why, what it is that you are trying to

Gena: 00:01:56

do, it's going to be easy for you to abandon the project and not finish it.

Gena: 00:02:01

It'll be easy for you not to do it in the best way possible.

Gena: 00:02:06

Or it'll be easy for you just to kind of lose your way and lose your motivation.

Gena: 00:02:11

Like it's, it's easy.

Gena: 00:02:12

There's a dip that happens when you're writing that if you're not careful, it

Gena: 00:02:18

will make you stop writing a project.

Christopher: 00:02:21

So it's just not wanting to always having written a book.

Christopher: 00:02:25

That's not enough?

Gena: 00:02:26

I don't know that that's enough.

Gena: 00:02:28

I think that's enough maybe for something.

Gena: 00:02:31

For some people, that will be enough of a why, but for other people, and I

Gena: 00:02:36

would say a deeper motivation would be, why are you writing that specific book?

Gena: 00:02:43

Why does that story resonate with you?

Gena: 00:02:46

Why is that topic something that you need to bring to market?

Christopher: 00:02:51

Yeah.

Christopher: 00:02:51

And that's, that's important because if you know what your why is, it makes

Christopher: 00:02:55

the writing so much easier, right?

Christopher: 00:02:57

It'll make you more creative when you write and make you

Christopher: 00:03:00

more productive when you write.

Christopher: 00:03:01

It will help if you've got writer's block, right?

Christopher: 00:03:05

And you don't know where to go next.

Christopher: 00:03:06

A lot of times that's because we don't have the intrinsic understanding

Christopher: 00:03:11

of why we're writing the book.

Christopher: 00:03:12

And so that right, it says something at some point that we

Christopher: 00:03:15

might stumble on comes up and it's like, We can't get past it, right?

Christopher: 00:03:18

Because it's just like, uh, I don't know.

Gena: 00:03:20

Yeah

Christopher: 00:03:22

it brings clarity.

Gena: 00:03:22

It brings clarity for it.

Christopher: 00:03:24

And it helps you finish the book then, right?

Christopher: 00:03:26

You're not just writing it, but you're actually getting the book done then.

Gena: 00:03:28

Yeah, because like I said, there's this dip that can happen when you're

Gena: 00:03:32

writing books where you kind of can get into that middle section that you can

Gena: 00:03:36

kind of find yourself a little bit lost.

Gena: 00:03:39

So I think it's an important part of just finding your personal why.

Christopher: 00:03:44

Absolutely.

Christopher: 00:03:45

And when you find out what the why is, and I mean, really,

Christopher: 00:03:49

that's what it's all about, right?

Christopher: 00:03:51

Because like, okay, I write children's books, let's say, and I might write

Christopher: 00:03:56

children's books because I want to feed the into the lives of children.

Christopher: 00:04:01

I want to help them become stronger individuals and grow

Christopher: 00:04:04

up as stronger individuals.

Christopher: 00:04:05

But when I'm working on an individual book, there might be

Christopher: 00:04:08

a specific reason for that book.

Christopher: 00:04:09

For instance, when I wrote a Reality Shift, which is my book about a boy who

Christopher: 00:04:14

gets a laptop and discovers that whatever he types into, it actually happens.

Christopher: 00:04:18

It's really a book about the power of words.

Christopher: 00:04:22

And I wanted to share this message that your words matter.

Christopher: 00:04:26

As a 12, 13 year old boy, your words, the words you say to others, the words

Christopher: 00:04:32

you speak into the world, the words you tell yourself, those all matter.

Christopher: 00:04:40

And so that's the message I wanted to get across in that book.

Christopher: 00:04:43

But reaching kids as a whole was the reason I was writing in the first place.

Gena: 00:04:50

Yeah.

Gena: 00:04:51

And I think for me, I started writing and I had always kind of wanted to

Gena: 00:04:55

write a book, but I quickly discovered that the projects that I were

Gena: 00:05:01

working on were giving people hope.

Gena: 00:05:05

They were giving people hope.

Gena: 00:05:06

They were giving people purpose.

Gena: 00:05:08

And that became being part of those kinds of projects was really, An exciting

Gena: 00:05:15

thing for me and that counts whether I've been working on book projects or even

Gena: 00:05:20

if I've been working on newsletters or on emails or on blog posts or Articles

Gena: 00:05:30

those kind of things that I can bring a person's story to life or I can bring a

Gena: 00:05:36

message to life and I can help with that.

Gena: 00:05:39

That is a very empowering thing and it gives me purpose in my,

Gena: 00:05:44

in my writing and in my life.

Gena: 00:05:47

I feel like what I'm doing isn't just helping people make a bunch of money.

Gena: 00:05:51

It's because there is a why associated with it for myself and for others.

Christopher: 00:05:56

Yeah.

Christopher: 00:05:57

There's kind of a, there's this smaller reason, bigger reason, and it's all.

Christopher: 00:06:02

It's important to make sure that you've got that reason.

Christopher: 00:06:04

I think it's very easy as you write more projects to get to this point

Christopher: 00:06:10

where you're just writing, right?

Christopher: 00:06:11

And you can write just for money, which, that might be your reason, right?

Christopher: 00:06:15

You want to be able to make a living and, and, and work from home kind of thing.

Christopher: 00:06:18

And that's okay.

Christopher: 00:06:19

That's totally a valid reason.

Christopher: 00:06:21

But if you don't know that that's the reason you're doing it, it might make

Christopher: 00:06:25

it to where you don't have clarity when you're putting these projects together.

Gena: 00:06:28

You won't push through, you won't push through those

Gena: 00:06:31

when that project gets difficult.

Gena: 00:06:33

Or, uh, when you're, you've got something else to learn, it

Gena: 00:06:37

becomes difficult, uh, to, to do.

Gena: 00:06:39

But if you've got that why, then it keeps you pushing.

Gena: 00:06:42

And I wanted to point out, Chris, you were talking about, I think it's easy

Gena: 00:06:45

for people to think about finding their why when they're writing nonfiction.

Gena: 00:06:50

Cause a lot of times nonfiction comes out of a pain point for the author that

Gena: 00:06:54

they want to share, or it comes out of their education, or it comes out of some

Gena: 00:06:59

kind of, something that they've learned that they want to bring to the world.

Gena: 00:07:03

But this idea of finding your personal why is important even

Gena: 00:07:08

for, for fiction writers as well.

Gena: 00:07:10

Like you said, you were writing to children or to middle graders.

Gena: 00:07:16

You were bringing this message of this theme, right?

Gena: 00:07:20

That the power of words, it was this idea of you brought a theme to your

Gena: 00:07:24

writing and that kind of thing becomes

Gena: 00:07:29

important for fiction writers as well.

Gena: 00:07:31

This idea of finding your why.

Gena: 00:07:33

And it can be that you love a particular genre.

Gena: 00:07:37

And so you want to just entertain people, but maybe think about it

Gena: 00:07:42

in terms of, okay, is, is what I'm writing just a fun beach read that

Gena: 00:07:47

helps someone kind of recharge, kind of disconnect from the stress,

Christopher: 00:07:53

which is totally valid reason

Gena: 00:07:54

is valid reason, that you're giving people just a fun adventure or

Gena: 00:08:00

fun romance that they can, you know, kind of, it gives them a safe space.

Gena: 00:08:06

We've talked about safe spaces.

Gena: 00:08:07

It gives them mentally a place that they can just go and

Gena: 00:08:10

be entertained and have fun.

Gena: 00:08:13

So, um, it can also be, uh, maybe you're introducing people to a part of the world,

Gena: 00:08:21

or if you're writing fantasy, maybe it's an idea that you're taking people to a

Gena: 00:08:26

new world that you've created, and you want to share this beauty with them.

Gena: 00:08:32

Uh, you know, I love the idea of this, uh, this idea of creating worlds.

Gena: 00:08:39

I believe I read, read that Tolkien's motivation for writing, uh, the, the

Gena: 00:08:45

Lord of the Rings trilogy was that he was a linguist and he wanted to explore

Gena: 00:08:50

this idea of language and bringing this beauty of language to life, which I

Gena: 00:08:56

think, okay, here's a man whose work is, is lasting for generations now.

Gena: 00:09:02

It's beautiful.

Gena: 00:09:04

It's, it's, I mean, high fantasy.

Gena: 00:09:06

He's just created this entire world and we're still enjoying it today, but it came

Gena: 00:09:12

from his place as a linguist wanting to, and I'm, he probably wasn't a linguist.

Gena: 00:09:18

There's probably a fancier name for it, but he was looking at

Gena: 00:09:21

the roots of words, I believe.

Gena: 00:09:23

And that's what he was bringing.

Christopher: 00:09:25

And so, so what your why might be is something really deep

Christopher: 00:09:29

like that, or it might be something that's lighter, but either one's okay.

Christopher: 00:09:33

And it might be for something deep, like a full on book, or it could be

Christopher: 00:09:36

something light, like an article.

Christopher: 00:09:38

And.

Christopher: 00:09:39

You know, because I was thinking about that after you said that.

Christopher: 00:09:42

And you know, I have projects that I work on that are very simple, sometimes

Christopher: 00:09:47

finishing an afternoon projects, right?

Christopher: 00:09:49

They're not big projects.

Christopher: 00:09:50

But I thoroughly enjoy them and it's often because I know that that item is still

Christopher: 00:09:55

gonna either have an impact on someone or It's just gonna make someone laugh or

Christopher: 00:10:00

there's just something about it That is special to me and that's the why I try

Christopher: 00:10:06

to figure out what that is And then I really find myself having motivation to

Christopher: 00:10:10

write it and that is important because sometimes You can get stuck on those

Christopher: 00:10:14

kind of things because they can be hard to push through when you've got other

Christopher: 00:10:17

things on your plate You But if you know your why, you can get it done.

Gena: 00:10:20

Well, and I would say even for both of us, there are times that we have

Gena: 00:10:23

taken projects and worked on projects that were not high dollar projects

Gena: 00:10:29

and we've done them because of that.

Gena: 00:10:31

Why we've done them because we knew we were bringing something

Gena: 00:10:35

to life that was important.

Gena: 00:10:38

or that was meaningful for us and it was worth it for us to work on.

Christopher: 00:10:43

Yeah.

Christopher: 00:10:44

This is the kind of thing that in our membership that we have on our

Christopher: 00:10:47

website, if you go to writingmomentum.

Christopher: 00:10:48

com, it's the kind of thing we discuss all the time in our weekly get togethers.

Christopher: 00:10:54

We get together for about an hour every Wednesday and we have a short

Christopher: 00:10:58

teaching and then we, We write together, we co write together for 45

Christopher: 00:11:03

minutes on our individual projects.

Christopher: 00:11:04

It's just a way to have accountability, get our stuff done.

Christopher: 00:11:07

And the writers in our space, man, they are getting things done.

Christopher: 00:11:11

But there's something about having this regular reminder of why we're doing

Christopher: 00:11:16

what we do that works out so well.

Christopher: 00:11:18

So, Hey, if you're looking for a group to join, join us at writingmomentum.

Christopher: 00:11:22

com.

Christopher: 00:11:22

It's a low cost, $25 a month membership.

Christopher: 00:11:25

Just is a great way for you to jump in and have a way to be

Christopher: 00:11:29

accountable and to get things done.

Christopher: 00:11:32

Meanwhile, this week, here's what we challenge you to do.

Christopher: 00:11:36

Sit down and ask yourself these questions.

Christopher: 00:11:39

Why are you writing overall?

Christopher: 00:11:41

Why do you want to be a writer?

Christopher: 00:11:43

What do you hope to achieve?

Christopher: 00:11:45

Who are you writing for?

Christopher: 00:11:47

And, On those individual projects, why are you writing those?

Gena: 00:11:51

And even what do you hope your readers gain from what you're writing?

Christopher: 00:11:55

Yes.

Gena: 00:11:56

What do you want to bring and give to them?

Gena: 00:11:59

Because that really is, you're giving a creative work, whether it's

Gena: 00:12:02

in fiction or non fiction, you're giving this work to them in hopes

Gena: 00:12:07

that they gain something from it.

Gena: 00:12:09

So think about that as well.

Gena: 00:12:11

What do you hope that they will gain?

Christopher: 00:12:13

So there's your homework.

Christopher: 00:12:14

Sit down, write that out.

Christopher: 00:12:16

What is your why when it comes to your overall job and when it comes

Christopher: 00:12:19

to individual tasks that you work on?

Gena: 00:12:22

And then the other thing we encourage you to do is give yourself

Gena: 00:12:26

a reminder, print out some kind of reminder, you know, or write it down.

Gena: 00:12:30

If you're somebody who loves sticky notes, write a sticky note or print it out that

Gena: 00:12:37

really encapsulates what your why is.

Gena: 00:12:41

Really, really write down what your why is and then put it somewhere

Gena: 00:12:45

where you will see it regularly.

Christopher: 00:12:47

You know what I've seen people do, and this is kind of cool,

Christopher: 00:12:49

they'll take and they'll create a, an alarm on their phone and they'll

Christopher: 00:12:52

put their why on the name of the alarm so that every day at 9 a.

Christopher: 00:12:58

m.

Christopher: 00:12:58

for instance, their phone rings with an alarm and they look down and they

Christopher: 00:13:02

see their why right in front of them.

Christopher: 00:13:04

It's a great way to keep that in front of you.

Gena: 00:13:06

It does.

Gena: 00:13:07

Cause man, we both know that life will come and try to

Gena: 00:13:11

distract you from that why?

Gena: 00:13:13

You know, there, there are bills to pay that are, there are

Gena: 00:13:16

family members to take care of.

Gena: 00:13:18

But if you've got that why, it'll help you in carving out some time

Gena: 00:13:22

for yourself to make that why happen.

Christopher: 00:13:25

Absolutely.

Christopher: 00:13:25

Absolutely.

Christopher: 00:13:26

So, hey, if you've enjoyed this podcast, would you share it with someone who,

Christopher: 00:13:30

you know, needs to be reminded, that what they're writing is important.

Christopher: 00:13:35

It's really easy to share it.

Christopher: 00:13:36

Usually you could just take a link or the look for that little share button

Christopher: 00:13:39

and you can send it to someone by text or you can send it to their email or

Christopher: 00:13:42

you might even be able to share it right in the app that you're using.

Christopher: 00:13:45

And in that way they can find this kind of good stuff too.

Gena: 00:13:49

We are so glad that you've been here with us today.

Gena: 00:13:52

Um, we do not take your time lightly.

Gena: 00:13:55

We know that, um, you're carving out time for this.

Gena: 00:13:59

And this also just shows that writing is important for you when

Gena: 00:14:02

you listen to podcasts like this.

Gena: 00:14:05

It shows that writing is important and it's one more way that you're

Gena: 00:14:08

keeping that vision in front of you and that you're not losing sight of it.

Gena: 00:14:13

So we hope you will come back and join us next time on the Writing Momentum podcast.

Christopher: 00:14:18

Because together

Gena: 00:14:19

we have writing momentum.

Christopher: 00:14:21

Bye bye.