Understanding Why You Write: Why Your Why Matters as an Author

Why do you write? It seems like such an easy question, but understanding your why will impact how you approach writing, your audience, and how you will move forward in the creative process. While it may be a simple question, the answer can have a profound impact on you.

How I became a writer

For me, my why has two parts. The first is why I write in general. I wrote my first short story in third grade. It was about a tree that grew frogs, and while all my classmates were done in a few sentences and went off to recess, I kept writing. I went past the lines created to help our penmanship into the back of the page and then onto another.

The story wasn’t any good, but it was priceless. It ignited my love for stories. I was already a voracious reader, but now I learned that I could put my own words onto the page. It was a way for me to communicate.

I have selective mutism, and in third grade, I was practically non-verbal, living in worlds inside my head or the pages of a book. By being able to put my own words down on paper, I found a way to connect back to the world. It became a lifeline, one that I hold tightly to even today.

So, I write to communicate. When speaking is too much, my words come out shuddering, or not at all; I am often able to turn to a keyboard or a pen and get out what I need to say.

Why I write what I write

I fell in love with science fiction early, and had my first short story published while I was in junior high. I mostly kept to short stories. I loved playing with the words and building an entire world with only a few paragraphs. I still love that.

However, when I came back to creative writing, after focusing on more technical writing while raising my children, I wanted to write a book. Before I ever put pen to paper, I thought about what I wanted to write and why I wanted to write it.

It was a relatively easy decision for me. I never lost my love of reading, but the more I read, the more I didn’t discover myself in the pages of the book. Sure, there was autism rep. It was fleeting, but it is there. It was also, at the time, exclusively written by neurotypical people and was often for children. The representation was stereotypical, white males, and made it seem like we should hate ourselves.

I wanted to push back on that, so I wrote my debut novel, In-Between. It features a single mother who is aromantic and asexual, parts of my identity I was exploring more at the time, and included representation that was more representative. The book contains sexual assault because 90% of autistic women report experiencing sexual assault. It is a near-universal experience. There is stimming on the page, and society condemning her for who she is. (Stimming is repetitive movement or sounds that are often self-soothing). But it also shows her being a good mother BECAUSE of her autism, not despite it.

I found my why for writing. I write to put representation on the page in sci-fi and fantasy that is normally not seen. This includes stories that may intersect with identities but doesn’t focus on identities. And I write about hard topics, but they are infused with hope. It has since been termed hopepunk. Most importantly, I love what I do, and when readers come up to me and tell me they were finally able to see themselves in a book, it is everything to me.

Why does it matter?

 Knowing my why has influenced my how and my who. Since I want to write books showing autistic and queer authentic representation, my audience has become defined. I write for my people. Sure, I hope others pick up the books, but my primary audience is other neurodiverse and queer SFF readers.

It also influenced how I decided to publish. My initial plan was traditional publishing. Then I did the research and realized the chances of the rep I wanted to write, authentic rep not based on stereotypes, being published were next to nothing. So I chose self-publishing. This way I can find my audience. I have. We are at the conventions, on social media, and in spaces that we have created. I go to those spaces, spaces that trad publishing doesn’t make an effort to connect with.

My career has been defined by my why.

Understanding your why will help you to shape how you write as well. If you love fan fiction and want to publish on AO3 primarily, then that defines how you write (episodically) and whom you write to (fan fiction readers in your fandom). If your goal is to write contemporary romance, then you will find voracious readers many of whom consume books rapidly through Kindle Unlimited.

Take a moment to think about your why and then use that to help know what is the next steps for you as a writer.