I’m less than halfway along. For me, it’s just 1) I wanted to see if I could actually do it (having never written any long fiction before) and 2) some free entertainment for family and friends. I am under no illusions that the book will sell many or even any copies; it’s just for fun.
What are the motivations for your books? Influence or change people’s opinions, entertain people, get something important off of your chest, an item on the bucket list?
I’m a ponderously serious self-important social-activist type, and writing books has always been a means to a specific end, of explaining the social concepts I want to explain and having them catch on due to the books being quite entertaining and readable, and the social message not being blunt and imposing like beating people over the head with a frying pan, but rather you can see how the main character arrives at those conclusions as a consequence of the events that are taking place.
NOTE: I’m not saying it’s worked yet… my first two books have, gee, probably TENS of readers! Small hybrid press, and me with no marketing skills whatsoever, etc.
But that was the motivation.
I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I wrote fiction at first because that’s what I read and I thought that stories were beautiful and important and beloved.
I eventually learned after small successes that I was instead a writer of nonfiction. Today every bit of untouched history - of which there is gigantic albeit mostly invisible piles - begs me to put their real stories together and put them out in public where others can enjoy them. I can’t do it fast enough and I can’t imagine stopping.
I write because I can’t not write. I just love to tell stories and I’ve gotten positive reinforcement (in the form of checks from publishers and magazines) over the years.
As for finishing, I want to learn how they come out.
Because I have stories in me that need to get out. For me, this isn’t an ongoing “condition” – periodically I’ll be struck by inspiration, and have to write to explore and complete the inspiration. At the moment, I’m between inspirations, though I am working on a comic book adaptation of my last novel.