Why?

What’s your why when it comes to your novel? I want to know.

What makes your story stand out in comparison to someone else writing the same story?

What is your writing why?

I was listening to a podcast – one of my favourites about Self Publishing – The Self Publishing Show – and there was something that was really powerful in the way that they spoke about knowing the why behind your story.

I think it’s the most powerful driving force of your story. Why does the story need to be written from that point of view? Or what makes your version of the story so amazing that it needs to be put on paper? What makes it so special?

Of course, no one will be able to match your voice because is it unique to you and no one else, but really delve into the story, is it the best it can be because you wrote it? Or did you pull it together from different influences?

I know that with my own novel, my why is simply this: I want to have one girl (or boy) who picks up the story and falls in love with the story. Obsesses over it and want to follow along with every part of the story. Be waiting for the next book, while falling in love with all of the characters that I have spent years crafting and writing.

That’s all I want. If I can touch just the one person my whole mission will be done.

The simplicity in knowing this drives me to get past my insecurities – which are cropping up so much right now – and keeps me laser-focused on my why. I want to change that one person’s life. Just like the books that I read as a teen saved me. John Marsden, Rachel Vincent, Patricia Cornwell and Francine Pascal held me while I discovered who I was as a teen and they continued to watch me grow as I discovered new writers to help ignite the fire within.

Writing is such a unique journey, why should our why be any different?

Strip back all of your excuses and sit down and think to yourself:

Why does the world need my story? What makes what I have different to others?

Explore it, look at your answers over and over again. Write it over and over again until you can remember it back to front and it’s all you know.

This is the why that will keep you going. It’ll be the backbone of your drive.

The next time you are sitting at your computer, letting your Inner Editor get the better of you, focus in on your why. Let it be the guiding force that makes you stop procrastinating and stop letting your imposter syndrome get the best of you, because your story is waiting for that one person or that one thing that only you can bring the world.