![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/writing.jpg\")
<\/a>Courtesy of Creative Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
I noticed a common thread in these authors is narcissism<\/a>.<\/p>\n There seems to be a correlation between creative genius and mental illness<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ernest Hemingway shot himself<\/a>. F. Scott Fitzgerald was depressed<\/a>. William Faulkner was an alcoholic<\/a>. Actually, all three were alcoholics. Gustave Flaubert’s personal life was a bit \u2018out there<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n ******<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been lurking behind the scenes and observing writers lately.<\/p>\n Writers seem to be plagued by insecurities, much like great authors were.<\/p>\n Writers want to be known. They want their writing to be read and heard. They want to know their writing matters to others and is making a difference in someone’s life.<\/p>\n Personally, I don\u2019t get many comments or traffic on my blog. Nor do I have a large following, audience or platform.<\/p>\n I have had to come to terms that it may always stay this way.<\/p>\n Occasionally, I\u2019ll get a reader who tells me they enjoy my posts and likes my writing. But, not very many.<\/p>\n Truthfully, the more I write and share what God puts on my heart, the less people seem to like it and thus, I get less traffic.<\/p>\n Which is why I had to ask myself the following questions:<\/p>\n 1) Am I writing for God, myself or others?<\/p>\n 2) Why do I write in the first place?<\/p>\n 3) Will I continue to write even if no one reads it and\/or my audience never grows?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n My answers:<\/p>\n 1) I write for God and myself.<\/p>\n 2) I write because I love to write. I love words. I love the artistic expression and creative process. I love reading books and writing.<\/p>\n 3) Now this one was a hard one to answer, because as I mentioned above, all writers want to be heard and appreciated. But I’ve come to the conclusion, that I do not want my writing to be about someone else liking or accepting it. I want God’s approval. I want to write what I’m passionate about whether anyone else agrees with it or likes it or not. Other people liking my writing is just the icing on the cake.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I’ve discovered that to continue writing, the ‘why’ has to be bigger than the ‘obstacle’.<\/p>\n If your why isn\u2019t bigger than your obstacle, then you won\u2019t keep at it.<\/p>\n If you are only writing for man\u2019s applause or recognition, you will eventually be disappointed and give up.<\/p>\n Writing for others is the wrong focus and motivation.<\/p>\n Writers have to be comfortable and content\u00a0 for art\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n Even if no one reads your writing, you should still want to write anyway.<\/p>\n Writing should never be about other people, but about God and you.<\/p>\n This is the reason why I write.<\/p>\n Now it’s your turn, why do you write?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I enjoy reading interviews of writers and their creative process. In the past few days, I have been reading interviews of great authors, such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner and Gustave Flaubert. I noticed a common thread in these authors is narcissism. There seems to be a correlation between creative genius and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[10,90],"tags":[637,639,634,77,628,629,640,638,161,635,633,24,636,631,632,630],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2292"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2310,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292\/revisions\/2310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}