Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Take care with the reasons why you write. You may be putting the decisions of others as the key to your satisfaction.

Why do you write?

People who don’t write often ask me this. Google that question and see a million blog posts for answers.

One of the things I do is write short stories. I post these on Smashwords and have quite a collection there – almost a hundred of them. In an earlier blog post, I explained my reasons for writing short stories. Making millions of dollars was one goal, but having fun writing was the more realistic and often-accomplished goals.

Now to the topic of control and motivation for writing:

Motivate yourself with something that you alone can control.

Suppose my motivation for writing stories and books was to make a lot of money. To make a lot of money, I would need:

• other people to publish my works
• other people to read my works
• other people to buy my works

Hmm, lots of other people involved. Can I control the people who publish, read, and buy the written word? No. They decide what they will do. Therefore, if my motivation is money and all these other people don’t cooperate, I will be greatly disappointed.

If, however, my motivation is something that I alone can control. I can be greatly satisfied. My primary motivation for writing is something like:

• the fun of telling a story
• relieving my mind be writing my thoughts
• improving my writing by writing and writing and writing

I control these. I can satisfy myself. I can sleep much better at night, and I like that.