What motivates you to write?

Please share your motivation behind your writing? Are you able to fulfill that goal?

I’ve probably written about this a bunch of times but I couldn’t think of the right keywords to go search through the 4000+ posts I’ve written in the last decade.

Here is something I learned about myself over the years: I’m motivated to do something when I’m not being told to do it.

I used to hate writing, especially for school. I hated the teachers for making me do book reports. What’s the purpose of such assignment? What is the need to write a 750-word summary on a book?

Not only it doesn’t motivate me to read the book, it doesn’t motivate me to write. The other thing that wasn’t at all motivating was that I had to sit still at my desk and write out the entire book report before I could do anything else. It wasn’t that I was unable to sit still, it’s just… it’s hard to sit still when you’re stuck. When I’m forced to write, it’s like being hit with a writer’s block.

So what’s motivating me to write now?

The ability to share my thoughts is my current motivation to write. It’s freeing to be able to voice my constantly-being-silenced thoughts down in words. I would’ve probably gone crazy without having a place to write down my thoughts, especially when I’m constantly being told to shut up or stay in the background in life.

What’s that saying? A child should be seen but not heard. That’s how I’m still being treated in my own house. I know it’s stupid and probably pathetic of me but that’s the unfortunate thing of being small and being controlled by a bigger person.

The other thing that’s motivating me to write is my imagination. When I read a novel or even listen to an audiobook, I can picture what’s happening in the story as if I’m watching a movie. That’s how wild my imagination is. Even when I’m not reading or listening to something, movies and scenarios are happening in my head, so why should I let those go to waste?

Sunday Poser