A writer's life: Finding my "WHY" to show up

I've talked about my creative process and about how I stay productive before, but what about when the will to do something we love doesn't come naturally?

As much as I love my projects and my characters, some days I don't feel like showing up in front of my keyboard. And some bad days, not even my writing routine can save me from the dread I feel just at the thought of sitting in front of a blank page. But there's something that keeps me going.

There's always a reason that pushes us to pursue our dreams, and it's far more complicated than we initially think. At the beginning of 2021, my self-publishing coach advised me to dig five levels deeper into myself to find the real reason behind my writing. What ignites the need for writing inside me? Why do I need to write? Why do I continue to show up every morning in front of my keyboard, even when I don't feel like it?

That's when I came up with a phrase that summarizes my "why" to its most basic self: Decolonize The Avengers.

Don't get me wrong: You know I love superheroes. You know I love SciFi. But you and I both know that these industries could do better to represent us.
Where are the Latinx superheroes and space adventurers? Not on the big screen among the Captain Americans and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Where can I find an unconventional POC leading the charge to save the universe? Not in the big comic book arcs.
Why? Because we are still the quirky best friends, the calvary, the sidekicks.

The work to include the BIPOC culture has started, but is it enough? I think not.

Turns out this is why I write. I seek to do my part to put BIPOC people on the big maps of SciFi and Superhero Fiction. Representation matters. It's our tool to share with the world our cultures, our colors, and our life experiences. When people see diversity in entertainment, it normalizes our existence in all spaces.

So, when would I feel like we have been represented?

When being Latinx isn't reduced to just speaking Spanglish.
When BIPOC creators are accepted in all spaces.
When the industry stops padding themselves on the back after adding four BIPOC to a sixteen-person cast of heroes.
When we all feel seen.