Why do you write?
Is it only to improve a skill or make money, which is not wrong and are common reasons, or are there other reasons for your writing?
I had another goal, which was to write to make a better world, a better community. As naive as it may sound, it still holds true to me.
This was one of my underlying motivations to start writing in the first place. This, and that I wanted to see if I could write.
My audience is small, the reach is not far, at least for now. But it still matters, to me at least.
I live in a pretty comfortable world, I have a supportive family (mostly) and an education, a stable job, a loving husband, and healthy children.
There’s nothing major to complain about. There are, of course, relationships to work on, and the stresses of caring for young children and my day-to-day work.
But, as a whole, it’s almost rosy, except for the occasional blues that hit me on some evenings, usually when I’m off from work on a weekend, and unoccupied.
I recognize that and am cautious for my own sake, putting up my own guard rails for managing my mental health.
But there is a lot that I am not happy with outside of my home, and I feel it, the dissatisfaction, a speck of dust in my contact lens, an irritant on my skin. You notice it when you are quiet, when you are alone, it becomes louder, more obvious, most of the time you can drown it out with ‘activities’, or focus back on your day-to-day problems.
That is why I write intentionally, most of them at least.
I share my thoughts with the aim of helping, or improving a situation, to educate, to share different perspectives and opinions, to ask questions, and to invoke questions from readers, exploring societal themes, and hopefully to make empathy more commonplace.
I read a story to my kids once, it was Cinderella, at least another author’s interpretation of it, it wasn’t exactly Walt Disney’s version that I grew up with. It had a line, that Cinderella’s mother used to say before she passed away, it goes like this.
“Just because it is, doesn’t mean it should be”
What she meant was that just because something was the way it was in society, or at home, doesn’t mean it’s right, or that it can’t be changed.
This author had an additional take on the story, and she passed it on subliminally in her version of this classic.
Other times I write to release my emotions, as a form of self-expression like now, or share stories from my personal life, some of which are more light-hearted, while others can be a bit heavier to take on.
What topics do I tend to write about?
Parenting and motherhood, mental health, child development, personal growth and empowerment, sustainable environment, materialism, personal finances, work, relationships, societal problems, and writing in itself.
The usual hot topics that people gravitate to. I’m kidding. These are not always popular topics, but it’s what I want to write about.
I’ll end with this.
If you have yet to do this check on yourself, maybe you can ask yourself now, what is the intentionality of your writing?
Be it writing music, blogging in your personal space, or writing for for a weekly column of a publication.
It’s a good place to start, with intention, that is.