One of the things that will help you as a writer is realizing what your motivation for writing is.  Once you’ve figure that out, you can then use your motivation as a tool to help you on your path to success.

But first, in order to figure out what inspires you, you need to ask yourself a few simple questions, such as what is it that made you want to become a writer in the first place? Was it another author’s writing that inspired you?  Was it a friend or family member?  What event in your life made you realize you were destined to become an author?

Whatever the reason, it’s important that you recognize and own it.  The reason I am telling you to OWN it is because your inspiration is extremely important to becoming a successful writer.

Your inspiration is what will end up being be the main power and motivation behind your writing career. It’s a tool that you can use to help propel yourself along on your journey towards becoming that published author you have always dreamed of becoming.

So, go ahead, figure it out. OWN it.  It could end up being the key to your success!

**Before I get into the importance of inspiration, and my own personal reasons for becoming an author, I would like to ask for everyone reading this to please take the time and post your inspirations in the comment area below.

You don’t have to go into too many details with it if you don’t want to, and it is okay if more than one person shares the same inspiration.  In fact, I think having similar interests with someone else is great!  I love hearing about what inspires others. So go ahead, share your inspirations with the world! You never know, someone else’s inspiration might just inspire you!**

Moving on…

There are many different things that can inspire a person to want to write.

For me, my reason is one that you probably won’t expect.  In fact, I’m betting there aren’t many other writers out there who find inspiration in the same thing I do, at least, I hope not. Oooh, is the suspense killing you yet?  Well, don’t get too excited, because what inspires me is not some great happy memory like you may think…

Bear with me on this please, this is not something I have shared with many people. Most of my friends don’t even know this about me, so I hope everyone reading feels special that I’m sharing some of my most personal and private information.

And please, understand that I will not be going into great detail because it is something I still have difficulty talking about.

The main reason I am sharing this personal information with you is because I want you to see what motivates me and why this has played such an important role with my writing.  I hope that my motivation will help someone else find their own motivation.

So, here I go…

… between the ages of 4-7 years old… I was molested.  There.  I said it.  Now the world knows my secret…. *releases a huge breath*

Now that I have shared that horrible life experience with you, which sharing it really is like a weight being lifted from my chest – for all of those out there who were wondering about that, you are also probably wondering how that bad experience could have possibly inspired me to want to become an author, right?

Well, I am about to tell you…

As you can probably imagine, being molested is too much for a child’s small mind to handle. It can break a child. Even with me being so young at the time and not fully able to grasp what was happening to me, I still knew it didn’t feel right, that it felt dirty and bad.  I knew what was happening made me different from all the other kids my age.  It made me feel damaged, and I didn’t like myself anymore because of it.

Then, one day, when I was reading one of my children’s books, I realized that while reading that book, all the bad thoughts in my head had seem to disappear.  They just vanquished, as in, poof! It was such an enormous relief.

So, I began to think about the characters in the books, and how I liked them so much that I wanted to be just like them.  I would do anything to trade places with them, so I began to imagine myself in their place, going on their adventures, leading their exciting lives.

Whenever I would read, it was like I was no longer that dirty little girl who was scared to close her eyes for fear of seeing THAT face again…

No, I was the little girl in the book who traveled to a imaginary places. Places where children could go to get away from all the adults in the world, where they never had to grow up, never had to face the monsters that haunted them and stalked them in their dreams…  I could even pretend to be the little girl who made a bunch of new friends when she drank the potion and fell through a hole landing in a strange, weird new world, or, I could fly, like J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.  I could do anything my little mind could think of!  It was a new freedom for me… these books were my only escape from the nightmare I was living.  They helped me escape reality…

But as I became older, I realized I was not at fault for what had happened to me.  Although, I still felt damaged, but what author does not feel at least a little bit damaged? We use our pain to invoke feeling into our writing. By this time, I was able to recognize and acknowledge the fact that immersing myself in books is what ultimately saved me.

Books took me to another place. A place where I felt safe, where I could be anyone else but me.  Books helped extinguish the bad thoughts and images in my young little mind… at least, for a little while.

I loved books so much that I started coming up with my own stories.  That is also when I realized that creating my own stories was even better than just reading someone else’s story.  In my own stories, I could pretend that I was anyone I wanted to be.  My stories gave me control over my life again.  I would sit in front of my stuffed animals for hours at a time, telling them all about the magical worlds I had created in my mind.

That is when my passion for writing first started and it was this point in my life that I knew I wanted to become an author.  I knew I wanted to share my stories with others, to help someone else find the solace they need like I did.

So now you know what motivates me, what my inspiration for being an author is.

Why am I talking about this, you ask?  Why does it even matter? Because, I want you to see that whatever it was that first made you realize you wanted to become a writer, is what can continue to be used to help you along your journey to becoming a published author.  All you have to do is recognize it, and yes, I am going to say it again – OWN it.

Say you lose focus, or you get writer’s block (which is something every writer, including myself, experiences at some point in their career), you can use your inspiration as a way to remind yourself of what motivated you to start writing to begin with.  Use it as a tool to help get you motivated again.  Let it be that kick in the butt you need to get yourself going.

OWN your inspiration… It is yours, you have full control over it! Put it to work.

Most authors know that motivating yourself to actually sit down and start writing is one of the hardest obstacles that we face in our careers.

Sometimes, for myself, when I begin to get frustrated and even consider giving it all up to end to my misery….

I realize that all I need to do is look back on why I chose to write in the first place.  My bad life experience that that first encouraged my love for books, and sparked my desire to help others, can be used to help renew my passion for writing and get my creative juices flowing again.

Remembering and owning that, even during the most frustrating of times along my journey as an author, is what has given me the inspiration to continue writing. To not give up. I’m reminded that I will make it through this and that one day soon, my dreams will be realized and I will be the successful author I’ve always hoped to be.

I also know that as long as I recognize and own my motivations, I will never give up…  not until I reach my goals. And even after I reach my goals, I will probably continue to write forever, or at least until all of my fingers and toes fall off! (ha, ha. okay, forgive my lame joke, that wasn’t as funny as it sounded in my head.)

Okay, so I think I have made my point now.

I will end this article by reiterating what I said before:

I cannot stress enough how much recognizing and owning your inspiration can be to your career as an author.  

One last thing, it is okay to have more than one inspiration, in fact, the more, the better!

And please remember, if you are having difficulties figuring out your personal motivations feel free to leave a comment below, or contact me in private and I’ll do what I can to help.  The main reason I started this site is for fiction lovers and to help authors who are on the same journey as me.

Every successful author has something in their life that has inspired them to want to be an author.  Find out what YOUR inspiration is and use it as a light to help guide you on the path to success.