Why write?

[pina la nina]

I admit I've not given this a lot of thought, but a recent debate here prompted me to consider why it is people do this writing thing, particularly of novels. Any number of sites and articles expound on the painful nature of our chosen work and suggest mental illness must be involved.

Is this in fact the case? Are we all nuts, deranged, naive or misled?

I am confidant that we can keep this civil and not imply that any one reason is better or worse than another for writing a novel. I am in fact really curious what leads you all to keep at it, trying to finish, trying to improve, trying to sell your work, fighting the odds, etc - need I go on?

The options here only gave me 5 choices, and I just picked 5 at random, I'm sure I've overlooked the obvious. I hope people will feel free to click more than one choice or none and rant at length on why I've forgotten their particular reason, or why the poll makes no sense and we need no reasons for what we do. Anyway, carry on.

[vstrauss]

I clicked "job" and "challenge", though neither of these really fits.

I've thought about this a lot over the years--which, I've concluded, is a complete waste of time, because in many ways this is an unanswerable question. The best answer I can come up with is that writing is the only thing that utterly engages me, and I love that sense of total immersion. It's also the only thing in my life where I can't do less than my absolute best. That's really important to me, as in the rest of my life I'm pretty prone to laziness and compromise.

Definitely not the same as having fun, though.

- Victoria

[aka eraser]

I clicked "I've got things to say."

I also enjoy making people smile. I feel good when I hear I've brought a chuckle to someone who was otherwise having a bad day. If I can also occasionally make them think, nod, frown, get misty-eyed, feel entertained or maybe even learn something; well that's all good too.

[Lori Basiewicz]

It's the voices in my head thing, Frank. No doubt.

[maestrowork]

Anyone who knows me knows I have way to much to say. Way too much.

Way too much.

[madeya ru]

I'm going to say it's the voices in my head that have too much to say. Not me, nope, just the voices in my head.:snoopy

[pixie juice]

"things to say" I voted. though I lingered over the button about voices in my head ;)

I think it must be true that we are all a little crazy. Not in the "lock me up, I'm a danger to society" kind of crazy, but maybe just a little "disturbed". In the sense that we've seen things that maybe other people haven't, of that we at least noticed those things more. And those disturbances call us to write. About the sadnesses and injustices and trials and hope - and if we couldn't get all of those things out onto paper, I think we would be really crazy.

[HConn]

None of these options apply to me.

You need an option that says something like--For the groupies.

[pina la nina]

Yeah I was realizing that I forgot the most glaringly obvious - for the fame and wealth, of course, silly me.

Ah well, is nobody going for "fun"? I think it's fun, but maybe that's the real indication that I'm sick in the head. I'm sure some people think climbing Denali is fun too.

[SRHowen]

It's the voices--they whisper to me all the time and the only way to shut them up is to tell their story.

Shawn

[Yeshanu]

I'm glad I'm not the only one hearing voices...

Though an "all of the above" button would have got my click otherwise.

[Shadow Ferret]

None of those apply. It's not my job. I don't have voices in my head. I don't particularly find it fun. I have never liked challenges. And I really don't have things to say.

I write because I'm compelled to. I've tried to stop and ignore the compulsion, but it keeps coming back and forcing me to jot things down. I was actually successful in denying it for something like 5 years or so. I didn't write down a thing, kept it all in my head hoping I'd forget, but it erupted one day and actually forced me to write a complete novel.

[nolabohemian]

To live out all the things I may not necessarily be able to do or that are impossible to do in this life.

To create heroines that aren't wearing high heels when they get chased so they fall and sprain their ankles, or try to run to the roof of the building to escape (where the always get trapped).

To clear the clutter in my brain, 'cause once it's down on paper, I don't have to think about it anymore.

[willmarks]

The voices in my head told me it would be a fun, challenging job. I've got things to say - to them, like;

If it's fun, can you explain the inspiration to persperation ratio?

Where's the line between challenging and gruelling?

If it's a job, where's my weekly paycheck?

Is it safe to not only listen to the voices in your head, but to do what they say?

Can you clearly say to me why I took this job in the first place, and why I won't give it up?

[cleoauthor]

My writing partner says it well. "I write because it hurts to much not to." Yep, that makes sense to me, too!

[veingloree]

None of the above.

Perhaps because 'I wan't it to be my job'

but why do I want it to be my job, fun, challenge, looking cool to my friends?

[bolshywoman]

I write from vanity. :)

[HollyB]

I've found that writing down all those voices in my head is much more therapeutic than talking back.


http://pages.prodigy.net/rogerlori1/emoticons/confused.gif

[mammamaia]

for me, what's missing in your choices is, 'for the same reason i breathe!'

[Fresie]

I clicked "voices in my head" because it's more or less true. Five years ago I was a happy good-for-nothing and didn't even think about starting a writing career (well, maybe "one day when I retire"). Then this idea for a novel hit my head really hard. It was (and still is) such a great idea that it felt as if God missed the right head and it ended up in mine instead of hitting the head of some prominent professional author. Well, I felt sort of obliged to write the book. I took courses and workshops, simply intending to write this book one day. As a side effect, I became a professional non-fiction writer, writing started to pay my bills and in the meantime I worked on the book. It's still not completely finished (which isn't a terrible thing considering five years ago I couldn't write one word professionally--my first story was laughable), but it keeps growing and developing -- and it's thanks to this mad "voice from heaven" or wherever that I started writing at all. So yes, writing IS my job, I do hear voices in my head and it's also a constant challenge because I'm still a newbie and I keep learning.

Really, there can't be just one choice! Thank you, Pina, for the great poll!

Fresie

[Gala]

Why not?

For me, all the reasons stated. And due to many losses and tragedies in a short period of my life, I've endured a Dark Night of the Soul in which I learned I am a messenger for those in my heritage who for, various reasons, either couldn't speak up or didn't.

[pencilone]

I write because I want to sell my novels and make enough money to write full time.
I write to build a new career as a novelist.
:hat

[Jamesaritchie]

Well, I worte my first short tsory with the idea of making some spare money. I did. But I also found I greatly enjoyed the process of writing.

In the end, I write because I enjoy writing more than just about anythng else I can do with my time, I write because I found I'm pretty good at it, and I write because writing is better than not writing. It's also my job, but wouldn;t be if not for the first three reasons.

[pencilone]

Of course, if I didn't enjoy it, I would not try doing my best for it.

I also believe that in order to reach a professional level in writing, one has to treat writing professionally (and I mean to treat it like a job).

[Jamesaritchie]

Treating writing like a job from the start certainly makes success far easier and far quicker.

[spooknov]

I chose "voices in my head", not because I'm a loon (which I very well may be), but because I hear stories played out in my head. They won't stop until I've written them out. When one story has been told, another pops up (the "what if" syndrome).

I stopped writing for a few years when my dad became ill. Yesterday hubby made a comment that for the first few years after he died, I was distant. Now, I'm like a completely different person. I didn't put two and two together at first. Then it dawned on me. When I started writing again, I got my zest for life back.

[LiamJackson]

Why write?

It beats a sharp stick in the eye! (on most days)

[aka eraser]

It beats a sharp stick in the eye! (on most days)

If you're really near-sighted and write in longhand you can do both!

[Pthom]

That's why they invented bi-focals, Frank.

[reph]

Frank, turn the pencil around.

[aka eraser]

Doh!

[maestrowork]

That's where the eraser is, you know?

The tiny pink thing...

[ElonnaT]

I write because I just finished my Master's degree and am lost not being in school and having more free time on my hands.

I've never had much time to write seriously, so now that I do I am going for it. I love it.

[Terra Aeterna]

I write because I can't not write. Cheaper than therapy. :-)

[alphabeter]

I chose voices because I really do have a whole lot going on up there. :dancin :party

Really for me, I tend to answer "not writing is like not breathing, the buzz is nice but eventually problems arise".
Now that is cute and flip, but its close to the truth. :grin

I have been writing in some form since I was three. I would doodle what I couldn't find the words for (and I still draw and sculpt little things) and create languages to describe others. :nerd

Is there some form of mental illness involved? Probably, but we're in good company. The sane, normal ones use doilies, floor mats in closets and plastic coat their furniture. :lect

Alpha

[ChunkyC]

I too could have clicked 'all of the above'.

I agree with Frank, when someone gets a chuckle out of something you wrote that was intended to be funny... well, it gives me chills. And the same goes for making a serious point; if the reader gets it, it's goosebumps time.

I guess validation has to be a part of the equation, that the thoughts running through your head aren't all gibberish.

[Risseybug]

You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me :b

But I would seriously have to vote, "because I have something to say". The stories in my head just jump out onto the computer screen. *I wish*

[HConn]

I'm holding out for groupies.

[MrAngelwithnowings]

I write because it is an extension of me.

When I pass away from this world, a part of me will still live on through my words.

Each word read will be a word I once had in my mind.

It is a part of me I will leave behind when the real me is forgotten.....

[TerriLynn]

you mean I don't have to?? :smack

[arrowqueen]

Yes you do. It's a compulsion against which we are all helpless. Resign yourself. There is no cure.

;)

aq

[HConn]

Actually, I have a cure for writing addiction.

If anyone cares to hear it.

[Gala]

Hypergraphia is a problem for some, a blessing for others. It's also considered the anithesis of block.

See <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0618230653/qid=1092803079/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/002-1588747-6018439" target="_new">The Midnight Disease</a> by Alice Weaver Flaherty.

"...an odd but absorbing look at the neurological basis of writing and its pathologies..."

[mammamaia]

No Rest for the Wordy&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp by maia

what’s the opposite of writer’s block?
what do you call not being able to stop
words from spewing out of your brain
racing lickety-split down through your fingers
and draining into a pen and onto paper automatically
or pouring over a keyboard to crawl across a monitor screen?

is a writer who never has writer’s block
blessed or cursed by such a cruel deprivation?
how do you turn off a mind that won’t cease
churning out all sorts of stuff that has to be set down
in visual, readable form whether or not anyone else
anywhere in the world will ever read it?

gift or punishment, is this an incurable condition?
can it be treated like any other mental aberration
that causes distress to both the sufferer and
all who can’t avoid being subjected to the
outbursts of uncontrollable, inexhaustible
maunderings that result?

where do I find the off-button?
where’s the circuit breaker I can pull?
isn’t there a plug somewhere that can be yanked
to cut the power to my over-loaded gray matter?
tossing the computer and hiding all my pens won’t work,
I’d just prick my finger and write in blood on the walls.
I feel like some crazed serial killer in a novel
or some Hollywood horror flick, silently screaming,
“Someone stop me... before I write again!”

[Vanessa99]

For me its partly self-entertainment. Im one of those people that can't just sit there and watch TV. I have to be excercising in front of the TV or cleaning by the TV. I have to feel productive. So I have an over productive imagination as well. I usually start writing after I have been left to my own devices for a while, instead of being bored I'll live vicariously through my characters. There was a teachers strike that went on for three weeks straight a few years back and all I did was write for those three weeks and thats when i finished my first book. I was in a trance of some sort. I barely ate...i think my eyesight got worse from the computer screen....i developed some sort of tendonitis from typing....I didn't like the story very much either...I finished though! It's also more fun to write than read for me. When I am craving a profound story about the french revolution or something else I usually will hit the writing desk before the bookshelf.

[Flawed Creation]

I hit "i have something to say."

the "voices" thing would have worked, except i don't have voices. i have images.

disturbingly anime-like images, too.

i hope it'll be my job, i *do* enjoy writing (because i'm communicating)

i guess any of these reasons would wrok. (except the groupies. i have groupies, and they're really annoying.)

but i icked "something to say." because i think i do. my WIP is about the nature of morality, and serves 3 puprposes.

1: to point out that the concept of 'angels" is fatally flawed.

2: to get people to *think* a bit more.

3: to write fantasy the way it should be written. in a way that makes sense. no villains. shades of gray. female assassins who are NOT beautiful. etc.

[Dhewco]

"I've got things to say." I picked that, even thought it's also fun(although the rewrite and beyond stage is not as much fun as fresh writing).

[ElizabethJames]

Fun.

Because if it weren't fun, we'd probably find ourselves jumping off a high bridge into a cold river. We MUST write, so it better damn well be fun.

[Weren Cole]

I like Flawed Creations quip about the disturbing anime like images. . . I am a geek for all well done anime, and I draw a significant amount of inspiration from all that stuff. . .

there are voices in my head, but they are not telling me what to do, or telling me stories in which I therefore interpret for them and put on the page for them. . . my writing comes from the discussions that the voices are having. . . I am channeling the voices, my hands are the voices and it becomes a discussion between a version of my conscious self and the medium in which I write (usually the good ole computadora)

I've also got something to say, maybe even something to prove. . .

Weren Cole
Dan

[Philip Fullington Ripper]

I write out of envy.

[Vulpes Sapien]

Definitely the voices. When I stopped writing for, oh, about ten years, I nearly went insane. Severe depression, anxiety, phobias. Letting "them" have their say on paper keeps me out of the insane asylum. When I was a teen, I used to have really terrible nightmares about being in an accident and losing the use of my hands. My idea of hell was/is having those voices and not having any outlet for them.

I just wish that the people in my head would be a little more clear about how they want their story told.