Back to basics: What is your why?

Hello to all my fellow writers and those who aspire to be.

Today I’m here to check in with those, including myself, who are currently stumped! Those who are trying to figure out the direction in which you want to take your writing.

Sometimes we can get flustered and caught up in so many things in our everyday lives and such elements can get in the way of what we love doing most. In this instance of course that would be writing. I know that writers, can at some point in their life’s suffer from writer’s block, or are simply losing the motivation to keep writing.

It can be a little disheartening when you feel like you’re not really going anywhere with it. Maybe we all need to take it back to the beginning and ask ourselves, “What is my why?” How did it all begin? What got you into it? What spurred your passion in the first place?

For me, it all began in school. English Literature stirred my interest in reading and writing. I enjoyed the books we were given especially the anthology of beautiful poetry that opened me to a new world of expression.

Being able to express my innermost thoughts in a way that had some sort of rhythm to it. ‘Search for my tongue’ by Sujata Bhatt, was the poem that spurred my passion to write.

As I got older, writing became therapeutic for me. I was able to express the thoughts that I was too afraid to say out loud. As time went on, I realised that I wanted to share my thoughts in forms of poetry and blog posts. I wanted to share my world with others out there. I want my writing to encourage others to love and be their true authentic self. To be honest it helps with my mental health as well.

That is my why.

I encourage you all to take a step back and figure out your why. Take yourself back to the moment and use that to reignite your love for writing.

Aside from this and as a little added extra to keep you on track, try this brain hack, sometimes the challenge with writing can just be to get over the initial resistance your mind puts in the way, but once you get writing it just flows. So set yourself a simple target of writing for just ten minutes a day or perhaps every other day and then you can stop.

If you wish to keep writing, which I imagine you often will, then great – keep writing for as long as you can for that session.