“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.”
― Wayne Dyer
When we get up in the morning each of us starts with a clean slate. We have a choice. For writers especially, this is a very good thing. We tend to agonize every day in every way about our work. Constantly questioning both our motives and choices. Have I done the right thing, choosing to make a living by writing which offers no guarantees? Am I writing in the right genre, am I writing the right story and is it the right length?
Sadly, due to its solitary practice, writing offers more opportunities to question our judgement about what we choose to write. As independent contractors we exercise the right for questioning our goals, our motivations and often incite our own conflict through self doubt with every story.
But for many of us, writing is not a choice, but a necessity. Ask any writer who’s tried to quit. Some go cold turkey and can survive a period of sustained non-writing. Most return to writing because they cannot abstain. For the most part, writers write, and eventually a writer will return to writing simply to silence the voices in their head.
We believe we have a choice in life, and choose the path our life follows. Ask any writer who came to writing as a second job, and they will tell you: I simply had to write, I had a story to tell.
It is not relevant whether you write “for yourself” or for publication. Some of us write everyday, some of us not so often. Or we write in marathon events until the story is done. But we are all writers, and we each have our own process.
Choices drive that process.