This is The Write Now Podcast with Sarah Werner, Episode 50: The Most Important Question A Writer Can Ask.

Welcome to Write Now, the podcast that helps aspiring writers to find the time, energy, and courage you need to pursue your passion and to write every day. I am your host, Sarah Werner. And I have a cup of coffee and a podcasting microphone and a pair of headphones and my little tube of audio foam. And I am so excited to talk to you today. Partially because I’m still officially coming back from the hiatus that I took, that I probably shouldn’t have taken, but ended up inevitably taking. But secondly, because I’m really excited about the topic today, which is… It’s one of my favorites. And right now I’m going to increase the dramatic tension by sharing some really cool emails I received from listeners just like you.

The first is an email from podcast listener Socorro, and I hope I’m saying that right. Who says, “Hi Sarah. I found your podcast a few days ago, but marathon did it work today. Can I just say I was not prepared for the stupid emotions this podcast made me feel. Your words are so powerful. In the three and a half episodes I’ve listened to so far, you’ve hit so many questions I’ve had about writing. You’ve hit so many insecure spots for me in regard to writing and shed light on why I might be feeling them. Then you’ve comforted me and encouraged me to move past them. Honestly, right now feels like writing therapy.” Thank you so much for saying that Socorro. That’s exactly why I’m doing this. I’m so glad and I hope you keep writing and listening.

Next is an email from podcast listener David, who says, “Hi Sarah. I’m so glad I found your website and podcasts. I download your episodes to listen to on my iPhone. Very insightful and down to earth. Right now I have one book written and I’m working on my second one. I’m in the process of submitting my first one to agents, and it’s a long process. I have known since fifth grade that I wanted to write. It was actually the only part of school that I liked. I wrote in high school for the school newspaper, creative writing classes, et cetera, and then in college. From that point, it was mostly messages and lessons for church, public speaking, et cetera.

Then I built a recording studio and began taking clients and doing radio commercials. Alas, writing a novel was set aside for a busy life and family. It took me several years, but I finally finished my first last year. Whew, what a long journey. I wrote mostly on lunch breaks and at work, but I would also write everywhere and every time I could. Waiting at doctor’s appointments, sporting events, on vacation, because it is a vacation to me. You get the idea, keep up the good work, Dave.” Dave, thank you so much. I love that you shared your story and I think it’s one that a lot of listeners can relate to. And in fact, I can relate to it as well. Writing over my lunch break, writing on vacation. Yes, I identify with this so much. So thank you for sending me an email.

If you would like to send me an email that you would like read on the Write Now Podcast, please do so. You can contact me at hello@sarahwerner.com. That’s S-A-R-A-H W-E-R-N-E-R.com. Otherwise, you can jump onto my website, sarahwerner.com and navigate to the contact tab where you can fill out a handy dandy little form with your message. So I get emails through both of those. So feel free to use whichever one works best for you.

Finally, before we jump into today’s episode, I want to share one last email from podcast listener, Jodi. And she says, “I’m currently finding success splitting my time between freelance writing and creative writing. My bread and butter are magazine articles, blog posts, and ghost writing gigs. But I also write creative pieces for journal and anthology submissions, which do occasionally pay. Poetry publications, and I’m working on three of my own books, a memoir, a fantasy novel, and a YA novella. Multi-genre is the name of the game for me as a full-time writer, but being an organized Virgo is my secret. Cough, submission spreadsheet, cough. Plus having a hubby that covers our health insurance and provides income stability via his job helps a lot. Thanks again for encouraging us all to write every day. Love your podcast.”

Thank you, Jodi. I always like it hearing from writers, whether they’re published or unpublished, paid or unpaid, because it gives us something to work toward. And so I think that the life you describe here in your email is just really lovely. I also like how you separate out that, yes. You have to have a lot of different income streams from different types of writing and maybe different types of genres and have a broader portfolio. So Jodi, thank you so much for sharing your story.

All right, I’m going to take a sip of my coffee and let’s talk a little bit about the most important question a writer can ask. I tends to think that this question is good for both fiction and nonfiction writers, for novelists, for poets, for memoirists, for biographers, whatever it is you’re writing. I think you’ll find this question helpful. So some of you who’ve been listening to the show since the beginning know that for my day job, I work for a website development company/marketing technology agency. And my role there is that of a senior UX. So user experience, content strategist.

Basically that means I take a look at websites. I do the planning, I put together, the site map or the information architecture for the website. I do a little bit of experience design to help users navigate through websites in the best possible way, make sure that they’re usable and useful for everyone, all this good stuff. One of the biggest parts of my job is asking the right questions. This is one of those skills that’s not really a known skill, but if you know how to do it, you’ll notice a huge difference in the quality of your work. Basically, part of my job in information architecture, user experience stuff, is getting inside the shoes and maybe the mind of the person who’s going to be using the website.

And in order to do that, I need to ask a lot of questions so that I develop that full understanding. So when I sit down with a client, they say, “We want to build a website.” And I say, “Okay, why?” And they say, “Well, because we need to sell pencils.” And I say, “Great. Why?” And they say, “Well, because people need to use pencils to write.” And then I ask, “Why?” I don’t do this to be a jerk, even though maybe… Gosh, I hope nobody thinks I’m a jerk, but maybe it’s come across that way sometimes to some clients. And if I do, if you are a client who has worked with me and you think I’m a jerk, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to be.

What I was doing was trying to get you to think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, because it’s not until we fully understand our own motives, what lies beneath the surface of what we want, that we can actually start to create something that is good and meaningful. Sometimes we create good and meaningful things by accident. Sometimes you’re just sitting there writing and all of a sudden this wonderful, miraculous, inspiring, and poignant pros flows forth and you’re like, “Wow, I’m awesome.” But that’s, for me at least, not a daily occurrence. I have to ask questions. I have to take out my little metaphysical chisel and chisel away at my brain to unearth true understanding.

So as I’m asking these questions to clients, I sometimes also take a look at their motives and the expected motives of the users who will be coming to their website. But I also ask questions about who they are as a company, what they’re trying to accomplish. And I do this to differentiate pencil company A, from pencil companies B, C, D, E, F, G, et cetera. Because at the end of the day, when you ask someone, “What makes your company different?” Nine times out of 10, they’ll say, “Our people.” Which is amazing and wonderful.

And I love that we’ve come to a place as a society where we can say, “I go to work because of the people.” Not, “I go to work to make money, or I go to work to pay the bills, or I’m just working for the weekend.” No, there’s this wonderful understanding that people are what make the workplace worthwhile. That’s a tongue twister. Try to say that. Seriously, you can pause this episode and try to say it if you want.

So along those lines, what I’ll ask is why? “Why are your people different than anyone else’s people?” And again, I’m not asking this to be a jerk, I’m asking it to get at the truth at what they’re really trying to say. Because when you say something like our people, what you’re talking about is our people’s passion for their work or our people’s sense of humor or our people’s wonderful ability to work with our customers in a way that makes them feel valued. I mean, there’s so many different ways that your people can help your organization. And the way that we chisel down to the truth is by asking this question.

I remember when I was in school, we learned the different elements that make up a story and the different questions you can ask to get at those different elements. Who, what, why, where, when, how. For whatever reason, these questions were just drilled into me. And so I remember them today and they served me well. I should have given you some kind of spoiler alert, but the most important question a writer can ask is within those six little words, and I’ve already said it 800 times during this podcast episode already. So this may come as a bit of an anticlimax moment, but it’s why. Why is the most important question a writer can ask.

It helps you drill down to the core of truth. And often it helps you communicate with people in a way that unveils the actual questions you need to ask to get at the heart of the matter. One more quick anecdote. I was working with a client a long time ago, and it was during this meeting that I realized the impact that asking the right questions can have. And we were in the discovery process for building this website and it was for a retail company. And one of the questions I asked was, “Do your sales people use the website?” And the marketing director said, “No.” And I said, “Okay.” And I could have moved on from there, but I didn’t. And I asked, “Why?” And she frowned. And she said, “Well, that’s just how they do things. They don’t use the website.”

And I persisted. And I said, “Why? This is a great resource, or it could be once we rebuild it. I mean, this could be a really valuable treasure trove of information that can help them sell.” And she looked really flustered and uncomfortable. And then I understood and I said, “Is it because the sales people feel threatened by the website?” And she gave me this look of almost relief, I think. And she said, “Oh my gosh, yes.” And actually we ended up having a very meaningful discussion and a very useful discussion about how we could build this website in a way that was not threatening to the salespeople. And in a way that the website could enhance the jobs of the salespeople. And it was a factor that would not have been explored had we not drilled down with these questions.

I have some examples of how you can use this question to enhance your writing into maybe solve some problems that have been nagging you or scratching at the back of your brain. But first I want to say, I’m not introducing this question to you to give you what is I think commonly referred to as analysis paralysis. Where you sit back and question everything and never write another word, because you’re so busy asking questions and feeling full of doubt. So I’m not introducing this question to you as a means of procrastination. You can’t get out of writing by asking questions and you shouldn’t get out of writing by asking questions, because you need to be writing.

Similarly, not everything needs to be questioned. So you don’t need to sit back for an hour and ask, “Well, why is my character wearing a blue shirt? What’s the significance of the fact that he put on a blue shirt instead of the green shirt?” This is not meant to hinder your writing. It’s meant to help improve and help you get past places where you might be blocked or places where something just doesn’t feel right.

So let’s start talking about how this question can help improve your writing. My favorite and the most, I think obvious use of this question is to help you sort out understand and untangle your character’s motivation. Sometimes when we’re writing, and I know because I’ve done this a million times. You’re writing and writing and writing, and the words are coming out and they’re sounding great. And something happens. Something happens in the plot. Someone does something or says something and the words come out easily and they sound good. But then when you go back and read later, something just feels off about it.

When this happens to me, I know that I am sensing a plot hole or something that my subconscious knows does not make sense. So this is when I sit back and peer at that sentence and I ask myself, “Why is this character doing this? What’s their motive?” And often, it’s not true to the character’s personality. And then I get rid of it. As good as it sounds, sometimes you just have to get rid of those wonderful sounding passages. You have to sacrifice them and replace them with something that makes more sense, that answers the question why.

To do this, sometimes I’ll take out a notepad and I’ll just start drilling down and I’ll say why, and then I’ll draw a little arrow and I’ll write my answer. And then I’ll ask why again. And I’ll drill down, draw a little arrow and just keep asking myself why. And eventually I will unearth some little kernel of truth. Well, story truth. Some little piece of meaning. An understanding that sets the whole thing right. Why did the character do this? Because they were angry. All right. Why were they angry? Well, because this other character stole the sandwich right out of their hand. Okay, but why did the other character steal the sandwich out of their hand? This is a terrible premise. I’m just making this up as I go. But you get the point.

Understanding why your character feels a certain way. Understanding why other characters are taking actions. This is important. When we read books, when we read fiction, we’re there for the characters and we’re not there for one dimensional or two dimensional characters. We are there for three dimensional characters, with motives and reasons and beliefs and personalities. Asking why is a great way to keep yourself from producing one or two dimensional paper cutout characters. If you can infuse motive and history and personality into your characters, your story is going to be so much more rich. But you don’t need to ask why just to understand character motivation or plot points.

Like I said before, why is a useful question for any writer, no matter what you’re writing. If you’re a poet, why did you break the line right there? Why are you using assonance in the second stanza? If you’re writing a memoir, don’t just brush and glaze over the details. Ask why. Why did this happen? Why did you get angry when this happened? Why didn’t you get angry when this happened? Why? You can even use this question outside of your actual writing. If you need a break, sit back, look up at the ceiling and think to yourself. Why am I writing this? Or why am I writing this now? Or why am I having trouble writing this? Or why haven’t I written in three months? Why?

These also make for great journal entries. If you’re looking for your journal prompt, just ask why. Why didn’t I want to go in to work today? Why did I spend my time weekend binging Netflix and avoiding working on my novel? I think when you make this self-reflection part of your daily language to yourself, you’ll develop a better understanding of why you’re doing what you’re doing. Why your characters are doing what they’re doing. Why your poems sound the way they do, or how to solve that tricky plot point that keeps you up night. Again, don’t use asking questions as a form of procrastination. Rather, than use the question why to enhance and enrich whatever it is you’re writing.

The other reason I wanted to talk about this question today was because I think there’s something happening to us in the media we consume in the stories that we tell. And that is this natural extending of acceptance to poorly thought out storylines and characters. I’m not saying that the world is going down the toilet because it’s not. The world is amazing. And it’s full of bright and clever and wonderful people like you. But I think that a lot of people have stopped asking why. I think that a lot of people have lost their natural curiosity about the world. And I think that it’s our jobs as writers to help draw our readers back into that curiosity, into that wonderful feeling of mystery in the world, of enchantment with nature, of wanting to solve some complex societal problems.

The movies that we’re making today are all about robots smashing into each other and trucks exploding. And yes, while I love these movies, well, maybe I don’t love them. But while I’m happily distracted by watching them, they don’t help me ask why, because they don’t ask themselves why. Or if they do, the answer is not something that we necessarily want to know. Why robots smashing into each other? Because money. Because executives in suits like money. Because we are willing to pay money to be distracted from our lives, to ignore the whys that we need to be asking ourselves.

I want you to live a thoughtful and endlessly curious life. There are mysteries and issues and problems and discoveries to be solved and made with the generation of writers who are brave and willing enough to ask why. Why should we accept the status quo? Why do I need to publish within a certain genre to have my books sold at Barnes & Noble? Why does everything come down to money? Why can’t we think of something better to work toward? Never stop asking questions and more importantly, never stop asking why. Never be satisfied. Always keep searching, always keep asking, keep discovering, keep moving forward and keep writing.

When I sat down to create the notes for this episode, because when I podcast, I generally write down a headline. So the title of the episode, which in this case is The Most Important Question A Writer Can Ask. I also write down between one and three or four bullet points. And then I look at the bullet points and then I just start talking about them. And while I was working on the outline, the headline and three bullet points for today’s episode, I was torn because I do believe the most important question a writer can ask is why, but I have a runner up. And it’s this question that’s written on a sticky note and it’s pined to the little bulletin board above my desk where I write. And it says, what is the most interesting thing that can happen next? And what that does is it helps me think outside the box so that I don’t end up writing just one rote thing after another. So I wanted to share that with you is the second runner up.

And if you have any questions that you feel are valuable for a writer to ask, I would love to know what that question is. You can share that question with me in the show notes for today’s episode, episode number 50. And you can do that by scrolling down to the very bottom of the show notes and leaving me a comment there. I do get all of those comments and I believe I respond to every single one. If I’ve missed you, I’m really sorry. You can also email me at hello@sarahwerner.com or you can go to my website and navigate to the contact page and submit your question there through that little form.

I love making this podcast for you and I don’t do it alone. Every time one of my podcasts comes out, which I hope will be with increasing regularity and frequency, I have a lot of people to think who help behind the scenes. Some of those most important helpers are my financial supporters on Patreon. Patreon is a secure third party donation platform that helps connect people like you. People who are patrons of the arts with people like me, who are creating things that are maybe worth paying for, hopefully, I don’t know.

So Patreon allows people like you to donate 50 cents per episode, a dollar per episode, a billion dollars per episode, whatever you’re feeling. And every time I come out with a new episode, I get those dollars and cents, which help me to be able to afford media hosting, software, equipment, and the time that it takes to produce these episodes. In particular, I would like to thank official cool cats, Sean Locke and Rebecca Werner. Official book worm Matthew Paulson, official Rad Dudes Andrew Coons and the Sioux Empire Podcast. And caffeine enablers, Paul Sating and Colleen Cotalessa. You are all deeply wonderful people, and I appreciate your gifts so much. Thank you.

If you would like to join the ranks of these wonderful people and become a donor and Patreon, you can do that very easily. You can either go to patreon.com. That’s P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com and search for the Write Now Podcast. Or you can navigate to the show notes for today’s episode, where there is a link that says help support this podcast. Just click that link, and it will whisk you away to the Patreon website.

In addition to my Patreon supporters, I would also like to thank you. Seriously, I would not do this at all. I would have no reason to podcast at all if it weren’t for you listening. I would have no one to share my love of writing with. I would have no one to encourage and to cheer along the way. So wherever you are right now, thank you so much for listening.

If you want to get more out of your Write Now Podcast experience, you can find me on pretty much any social media. Usually under WriteNowPodcast, all one word. Or even better, you can subscribe to my email newsletter, which will send secret thoughts from me directly to your inbox. You can do that by going to my website, sarahwerner.com. S-A-R-A-H-W-E-R-N-E-R.com and clicking the black bar at the very top of the page and entering your email address. I won’t send you spam. I will only send you cool things, I promise.

Also finally, I feel like I’m just chock full of announcements and stuff. I don’t know if you know this or not. I very rarely talk about the writing that I’m paid to do. Often, that’s because I do ghost writing and I’m under a contract. Not to tell people “Hey, I wrote this book.” But, in 2016, I was offered my own column in Forbes. And so if you haven’t checked that out, please do. I tweet about them all the time. Usually I’ll include links to my posts. So if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll probably see some of my articles there, but check them out. I think they’re not terrible. I don’t know. Validate me.

It’s been a really long say. I have to say it’s late in the evening here. And it’s something like negative five degrees outside Fahrenheit because I don’t know why I live in the north where it is cold and it’s super late and I’m drinking coffee to stay awake. And we just had the new year. We just celebrated the dawn of 2017. And in doing so, I looked back at 2016 and I’m still reeling from all the stuff that happens and trying to furiously figure out a way to make 2017 better and not at all like 2016. And I guess this is my long-winded way of saying 2016 was exhausting. And I think I’m still exhausted from it. I wonder if you feel the same way.

It’s almost ironic that the theme of this podcast is to help writers find work, life and writing balance, because I don’t feel like I have work, life and writing balance. So who am I to tell you what to do? But hopefully you’ll keep listening and we can take this journey together. And hey, if you’ve discovered the secret to ultimate work, life and writing balance, let me know. And with that, this has been episode 50 of the Write Now Podcast. The podcast that helps aspiring writers and all writers to find the time, energy and courage you need to pursue your passion and to write every day. I’m Sarah Werner, and I’m going to be awake for hours and hours because of all this caffeine. Well hey, you know what? Maybe I’ll do some writing.