Why are you writing? The simple answer is “to tell a story,” but there’s more to it than that. Why do you want to tell a story? Writing is hard work. Outlining, drafting, and editing can all be draining, so why is the work worthwhile? If you don’t know why you’re writing a story it can be easy to lose focus and motivation. So today, we’re going to work through two major questions you need to answer before committing to a project. And hopefully, these will give you renewed purpose and motivation for your project.
What’s Your Story’s Purpose?
Are you aiming to entertain? To express your thoughts on a topic? To explore a theme that’s important to you? There’s not a “bad” purpose out there. As I talked about in my BZRK book review, all kinds of stories have their place and audience, but authors need to understand what their story is going to be before they begin. It wouldn’t make sense for a fun YA action-comedy to suddenly switch to a quiet meditation on addiction, and it wouldn’t make sense for a story seeking to explore cycles of trauma to have a light-hearted, goofy tone throughout. So before you start writing, you need to seriously consider what your story’s point is going to be.
I like to break it down into three categories: who’s my audience, what’s my goal for that audience, and what’s the theme? That first question relates to who your book is going to be marketed towards. Is it fifth-grade fantasy readers? Middle-aged Christian moms? Teenage boys who play the sousaphone? Regardless of the audience, this decision will impact the genre and language—its level of complexity, the amount of graphic content, etc. Once you make this decision it’s important to remain consistent. For example, if you start out writing for younger readers, then halfway through include a lot of graphic content and language you’ll likely lose your audience. Genre choice is a little less strict because it’s fairly common to combine genres, but you still need to give careful thought as to why you’re combining genres. If a reader picks up a book marketed as medieval fantasy, and then three-quarters of the way through a character pulls out a magic cellphone, that reader is going to be pretty confused.
The goal is broadly what you want your audience to take away from your story. Do you want them to think seriously about humanity’s impact on the environment? Do you want them to feel warm and fuzzy? Do you want to break their hearts? This decision will impact the tone. Tonal inconsistency can really take your audience out of the story. Not only is it just generally confusing, but it will also make the stakes unclear. If a story oscillates between bad things being framed as ridiculous and goofy to life-altering and tragic the audience won’t know how seriously they should take an individual event, and this may lead to them taking nothing in the story seriously. But the biggest thing the goal impacts is the tone of your ending. A story can have lighthearted or comedic moments throughout, but if the ending is serious and somber, that’s what the audience will take away from the story. Your ending is where you reveal your true point. It’s the punctuation of the piece, so whatever you end up choosing will impact how the audience interprets all that came before it.
And the final question addresses what the story’s ultimately about—the theme. I know that theme can be a contentious topic sometimes, but like it or not, all stories have a theme to an extent. Steven Moffat is quoted as saying "Nobody does themes. It’s a lie. Who have your heard say 'I’ve thought of a good theme?' They happen accidentally. You repeat yourself once too often and so it becomes a theme. We tell stories - that’s what people talk about, not themes." I really disagree with this approach. Sure, you may stumble upon a theme in the drafting process, but it should never stay that way. Once you figure out what your theme is, you should work on developing it so it shines. Themes are one of the most important pieces of stories because they dictate the story’s point. If you don’t have your theme figured out your story will likely be distracted and the ending will suffer. So as you begin writing, spend some time considering who you’re writing to, what you want your readers to take away from the story, and what that story is really about.
Why Are You Telling This Story?
Why are you drawn to this story? Theoretically, you could write about anything, so what led you here? What is it about these characters and ideas that makes you passionate about them? It’s very important for you to figure out why you specifically want to write this story because it will remind you of your passion—which is a great way to stay motivated—and help you figure out what you have to offer to the literary world. Why are you the person who needs to tell this story? Do you have a unique experience that needs to be shared? Have you thought about these themes extensively? Are you the only one who cares enough about this idea or world? Regardless of the reason, it’s important to recognize what you can bring to the table. And it might illuminate that you’re not the right author for this particular story—and that’s okay. There is a story that you’re equipped to share, and the more you grow the more stories you’ll have. It’s also important to consider what the audience can gain from your story, and what you can gain from writing this story. What are you hoping to teach and what are you hoping to learn? What experiences do you want to create and have? It’s important to remember that writing is an experience too, and there are stories that are going to be very beneficial for you to write. Maybe they’ll push you out of your comfort zone, or challenge you to new limits, or give you the chance to explore questions you’ve had about yourself and your world. Regardless, you need to figure out why you are writing this story to fully recognize your story’s importance.
Conclusion
Stories can have a lot of power, so it’s not superfluous to take time to consider why you’re telling a story before starting. Even if it feels like it’s delaying the writing process, I recommend taking some time to figure out what your story’s about and why you need to tell it. In the end, it will help you keep your motivation and focus and result in a more effective and satisfying writing process.
Next week we’ve got another book review, so we hope to see you next Friday. Until then, bee brilliant!
I love how your points emphasize consistency and intentionality. Asking yourself why a story lives inside of you is really only a first step, after all. I like this approach of asking "why" a story needs to be told before asking "what" makes up that story. This could really help establish organic unity within a piece from the get-go.