by A.C. Williams @ACW_Author

When I write a story, I like it to mean something more than the words that are on the page. I guess you could say I am a “message first” sort of storyteller. If I haven’t got a point I’m trying to communicate, I struggle to develop a plot or characters that are actually functional.

When I started writing my action comedy romance series, I had to find a deeper message before the story made sense to me. Even my young adult superhero adventures full of absurd chase scenes and hilarious antics have a point.

That doesn’t mean you have to have a point in what you write. Not everyone is wired that way. But, over many years of working with authors, I’ve found that every writer needs a Why.

Or, more accurately, every writer who wants to keep writing needs a Why. If you haven’t found your reason yet, let me encourage you to put some thought into it.

It could be that you’re satisfied with storytelling as a hobby, or maybe you’re content with only one or two books. Either of those decisions are valid and wonderful.

But what if you aren’t?

What if you want more than two books? What if you want to make a career out of this storytelling thing? What if you want to pour your heart and soul onto the page so that someone you’ve never met and may never know might read your words and smile?

Then, my friend, you need a why, because as laudable as those goals are, they aren’t going to happen overnight. Making a career out of storytelling is a long game, and long games get tiring.

So why do you write? What drives you to put words on a page?

Maybe you have lived a life and you want to share what you’ve learned with others so they can avoid the mistakes you’ve made. Maybe you love to make people laugh and want to share some joy. Maybe you’ve got a wild imagination and you want to invite the rest of the world on an adventure with you.

No matter your why, it’s something you need to identify and remind yourself of on a regular basis. When you first start writing, it’s cathartic. Words fly out of your fingers, and it’s easy to believe you’re writing the next Great American Novel. You’ll sell millions of copies. You’ll become a household name. You’ll cut a movie deal. And pretty soon you’ll be getting interviewed by all the news outlets.

Sure, I’ve had that daydream too.

Wanna know the truth? It never works that way. Even the fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of people who actually “make it” rarely accomplish it quickly. And even then, it’s never with their first book unless they know someone who can pull strings for them.

I’m not a negative person, I promise. I’m actually an incurable optimist, but I’ve been pursuing a career in this industry for 20 years. So all my optimism comes with a hearty dose of realism.

Don’t make the assumption that anyone will read your story just because you wrote it. Maybe you poured your heart and soul into it. Maybe you cried your eyes out when you wrote it.

That’s good. It’s good to invest your emotions in what you’re writing, but you can’t expect someone who doesn’t know you to do the same. You have to give them a reason why they should. And the best way to accomplish that is to know why you want to communicate those emotions to them in the first place.

Why does your story matter to you? What will the world lose if you never write it? Why is it vital that you tell your story?

Make space to answer those questions. Journal about it. Pray about it.

If your why is to get rich, fine. Great. But there are specific choices you need to make, intentional strategies you need to put in place in order to achieve that goal.

If your why is to share what God has taught you about life, wonderful. But if your life doesn’t connect with a reader’s life in some reasonably interesting or relevant way, what it’s in for them?

If your why is to make Jesus known, awesome. But are you trying to make Him known better than He already is? Or are you trying to introduce people to Him for the first time? Depending on how you answer, you have to write very differently.

You may feel called to write the story God put on your heart, and you absolutely should. But don’t forget to consider what it will take to position that story in a way that will allow it to connect with an audience. Strange as it sounds, if you want your story to resonate, it can’t be about you; it has to be about who’s reading it.

A.C. Williams is a coffee-drinking, sushi-eating, story-telling nerd who loves cats, country living, and all things Japanese. Author of more than 20 books, she keeps her fiction readers laughing with wildly imaginative adventures about samurai superheroes, clumsy church secretaries, and goofy malfunctioning androids; her non-fiction readers just laugh at her and the hysterical life experiences she’s survived. If that’s your cup of tea (or coffee), join the fun at www.amycwilliams.com.