Why Do You Want to Get Published?

If you want to get published, you need to be highly motivated. Being motivated is not enough, though: you need to understand what lies behind your motivations, so that at the end of your life you don't ask yourself, "Why did I waste my life on that?"

I'd like to share with you a guest post by Anne Burt at Christina Baker Kline: A Writing Life called Why Do I Even Want to Write a Novel? If you're considering writing a novel, or are part-way through the project, you should read this article. Anne Burt begins her article by writing:

Motivation has always been as cruel to me as it has been – well – motivating. I’ve been motivated to write because: I imagine glory when the world reads my masterpiece; I need to act out some childhood revenge fantasy about surpassing my father; I have a contorted sense that immortality is achievable through words on a page. Any analysis of my past motivations leaves me thinking I’m either a narcissist or an idiot or both.

Can you relate to that? I can. The joyful reception of a grateful world which you have blessed with your literature: a world that will pass on your book from generation to generation, from now and forevermore. If you stop and have a look at yourself (something I know I try to avoid) you'll probably find that you're "either a narcissist or an idiot or both." I say both.

Perhaps the concept of the the-ness of a novel inspires you, as it does Anne Burt. I haven't done the exercise that's described in her article: it's a little too artsy for me to bear. I can relate however, to holding a novel and thinking about what it would be like for the novel that I one day write to look and feel and smell just like that one.

On the subject of motivation, and the legacy we all want to leave, have a look at a new blog that's popped up called Choose Your Legacy. The blogger, Matt Rosinski, is trying to explore and express these very concepts.

Take time to discover your true motivation: find what you are passionate about. Why do you want to get published?