Write What You Want

Not what you think you should write

Photo by Alexis Brown on Unsplash

This week between Christmas and New Year is the week we begin to think about the goals for the new year. We should think about our goals constantly, and some of us do, but with the new year just a few days away, it becomes more pressing to ask ourselves what we want next. What do we want to accomplish? What do we want to do? What do we want to see — perhaps while traveling? What do we want to have in our lives?

All those are good questions to ponder and figure out. All change and progress begins with a few good questions. For writers, an important question to ask ourselves is what we want to write and why?

I don’t think this is a minor question. For example, when I decided to write on Medium about writing, my first thought was that there were plenty of people writing about writing and who needed another author telling others how they should write? I wondered if I chose that topic because . . . well, that’s what writers do. We write and so we should talk about writing. Do what other writers do. Do what works.

But that wasn’t my motivation. I chose to write specifically for other writers and to share what I’d learned (and continue to learn) because first of all, I’m a teacher, and I love to teach, and second because by writing about skills and writing techniques and…