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When\u2019s the last time you asked yourself "Why?"\n\nWhy am I pursuing writing? Why am I writing this particular project? Why am I working on this book proposal or replying to this email or spending time over here on Facebook when I should be finishing an article to meet a deadline\u2014and why \u201cshould\u201d I be finishing that article?\n\nAsking why about why we write helps us get to the root of our life motivation.\nWhy Do You Write?\nAnd why do you write what you write?\n\nAsking this from time to time\u2014exploring it, maybe even through a quick daily review\u2014helps us stay on track and avoid shiny object syndrome, because if we know the overall reason why we write, we can say no to the opportunities and requests that come up, realizing they don\u2019t fit with our why.\n\nWe can have multiple answers to the question of why we write: We can write for our own pleasure, to express our thoughts clearly, to get the stories and ideas out. Maybe we write because we want to share those stories and ideas with others, or we want fame and fortune, or we want to preserve details about events or to make an impact on the world.\n\nA lot of writing life questions flow from bigger questions and bigger issues, so although I\u2019m not a life coach, I often end up talking with clients about higher-level issues in their lives. If you spend some time pondering this \u201cWhy?\u201d question at a more existential level or from a values angle, determining your main values as you try to figure out your purpose, you may find clarity for a lot of areas in your life, not just your writing.\n\nBut that could be overwhelming, and since people meet up with me to talk about writing, writing is a good place to start asking why.\n\nWriting is such a revealing process, whether we write privately or publicly, we might as well start by asking \u201cWhy write?\u201d and let that start to reveal other ideas about the "why" of our lives overall.\n\nWhy do you write? Be honest about your answer. If you really just want to make money from writing, record that somewhere, like in a journal, and own it. Knowing that you want to make money\u2014even earn a living\u2014from your writing will help you make practical decisions; instead of submitting essays to literary journals, for example, you might focus on building a business doing technical or corporate writing.\n\nIf your compelling reason for writing is to contribute memorable art without regard for financial gain, knowing that is your \u201cwhy\u201d will help you make decisions about how you funnel your creative energy.\n\nIf your \u201cwhy\u201d is to gain popularity in a particular genre, you\u2019ll study the market and focus in on that goal, and decisions will be far easier than if you generally think you want to write because it satisfies your creative impulse.\n\nMaybe you write for fun, to make people laugh, to reveal an issue you\u2019ve seen and want to bring to light. You want to help people, entertain people, touch people, connect with people.\nThe Evolution of Your Why\nAs you write, your \u201cwhy\u201d may evolve, and that\u2019s okay. It doesn\u2019t mean your principles have crumpled or your dreams are dying. It may mean you\u2019re discovering new dreams and see new possibilities you may not have even known existed!\n\nIn the year 1997, who knew blogging would be a thing? In 2000, who imagined someone could write a novel or memoir, image by image on Instagram? Maybe these new possibilities have awakened a new \u201cwhy\u201d: to lasso current technology and playfully discover new ways to interact with people, writing tighter and clearer poetry and prose.\n\nYou might not have even thought like that in the early stages of your career because you couldn\u2019t have imagined it. You might have looked around at what existed\u2014books, magazines, newspapers\u2014and worked within those constraints.\nWhy This Particular Project?\nAsking "why" about a particular project helps us figure out how it fits with the overall "why."\n\nAt some point in your writing, you\u2019re going to see some of those new possibilities.