Writing because we must…

It’s very easy to forget why we write Pitch Wars peeps.

Writers who aspire to become published authors are especially susceptible to this word-induced, amnesia state because of the self-imposed timeline we cling to out of desperation. We believe we will complete this book in three months, edit for a solid three weeks, craft our query letters, send them, and within two weeks, we’ll have requests pouring into our inboxes. Shortly thereafter, we’ll receive an email for THE CALL, sign the contract, go out on sub, and WHAM! within six months of setting the first “It was a dark and stormy night” onto the page, we’ll have that publishing contract we’d dreamed of.

There’s a reason most of us write fiction.

Life does not happen within the confines of the limits we set for ourselves. If nothing else, writing a book with the intent of publication should emphasize that truth. As writers of fiction, we push the boundaries of our existence every day. It’s what we do. Unfortunately, writers forget that publishing a book follows it’s own plot arc, one the writer has little control over.

And there’s the rub. Which brings me back to topic.

Why do we write? Is it solely to sell our art to a publisher because that’s the only way we will feel worth? If it is, STOP WRITING NOW. I mean it. There are very few people who will achieve that sense of worthiness. James Patterson feels it. Nora Roberts surely feels it, along with a handful of others. Do I feel it? Maybe. Sometimes. Once a month when something good happens in my career. But I don’t LIVE in that place. Neither do most of my writing friends.

Yet we continue to write because WE HAVE TO.

FOR US. For our characters. For our stories that deserve to be told. For our sanity and the sanity of our spouses, children, significant others, friends, co-workers. Because if we don’t write we will lose part of who we are, and that’s not something I am willing to sacrifice of myself.

DON’T GIVE UP YOUR DREAM. Ever. Put one word in front of the other with eyes on the prize if that’s what keeps you motivated. But continue to write because it matters to you first–because you love it, need it, live for it.

Above all else, write.