MK Meredith: Why Do I Write?

Why do I write? Why do you write?

The answer to that question can determine your level of tenacity. Because this is the thing, writing isn’t easy. Writing requires a large time commitment, a tough hide, and self-motivation. And if you aren’t doing it for the right reasons, or rather, if your reasons aren’t strong enough…writing is easy to quit.

For me, I can’t imagine doing anything else. And that’s the key. I am driven to write. I have stories to tell. When I’m in the middle of writing a book, stepping away from it to engage in the rest of my life, is very difficult. And I love my life! However, I could be cooking dinner or on a date with my husband, my best friend, but  one leg still remains stretched out knee deep in that book. I can’t wait to get back to it. I’m antsy and long to feel the cool, smooth buttons of my keyboard. The story calls to me, my characters beg for me to resolve their issues or challenge them with new ones. Not until I write the words, ‘The End’, am I able to break free. For a second.

Until the next story grabs hold and demands itself to paper.

Writing makes me happy. Filling my life with joy is a dream come true. Why would I ever stop? I wouldn’t. I won’t. I am tenacious.

With every rejection from an editor or an agent, I take a day, medicate myself with peanut butter (my comfort food) and soak in the pain. But when the sun rises the next day…I write.

Stay in the fight. Don’t give up.

When the writing gets tough…get tough on your writing.

Write a business plan, with goals and actions. Write a vision statement. Consider the industry and your craft. What do you still have left to learn?

Everything.

Cheryl St.John, a wonderful romance writer, mentor and friend, gave me the best advice. “Be a constant student. Don’t ever think you’ve learned all you can learn.” Her words are permanently engraved in my brain.

I practice and research and write, write, write. I study the industry, and participate in my local writing community, critique groups and workshops.  My schedule is full and I love every stinkin’ minute of it. Because I’m a writer.

If writing is really what you want as your career. If regularly publishing in your genre, and someday making it onto the New York Times Best Sellers list is your dream. Then write. Don’t give up. Each day is a new day and a new opportunity to write your best work.

This industry is subjective and the traditional route leaves much of the control in someone else’s hands. But, what you do control is whether or not you write. Whether or not you learn.





Your success stems from your level of tenacity. Your ability to stick with it and grow and improve until the day you are published. Because that day will come. And it will come soon.

If you keep writing.

MK Meredith is an aspiring contemporary romance and paranormal romance author. She is the conference director for Pikes Peak Writers Conference 2014 and the president of Pikes Peak Romance Writers out of Colorado Springs, CO. 

As a member of Romance Writers of America, Romance Authors of the Heartland, PPW and PPRW, she considers herself a constant student. Currently she has multiple manuscripts under consideration, and she's working on two series. Loving motherhood, when MK is not writing she's snuggling her two children and harassing her husband, all of whom suffer from her spontaneous explosions of affection.