Why did you start writing novels/short stories/screenplays etc?

In all honesty, I didn't have a choice. I have an innate need to express myself, and I do it in a myriad of ways. I have written since the age of 4, and it has always given me a great release. I love the expression "dance like no one's watching." I write like no one's watching. I would write even if no one read the work.

I decided to write when I read so many good novels in a short amount of time. I felt inspired enough to write my own stories. In fact, it's something that dated back to my teen years.

benbradley said:

I started writing a novel because I wanted to FINISH writing a novel...

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Going back a little further, about a decade ago, there was this moment that planted a seed: I was standing in the supermarket checkout line and saw a display with all these copies of this one hardback book, the cover had wild yellow lines, it was Dean Koontz' new novel Intensity. I thought, wow, he must be making tons of money. And I was right.

KC36 said:

For me, I started because someone liked my short story and said he'd buy my book if I ever wrote one. Although I didn't start right away, I started 8 months later, and after that I liked writing as my motivation for success.

How about you guys? Did you start for a specific reason? Did you want to try something new?

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My mother tells me I was "writing stories" when I was five y/o, so I don't know what my original motivation was. Wrote furiously all through college, then had a crisis of faith (in myself and my talent) and I just ...stopped. For thirty years, to be precise. Then one day, about 4 years ago, I felt some logjam in my brain suddenly give way (and it did feel like an actual, physical sensation of "something just gave way") and suddenly I started writing furiously again. I had to; the ideas were pouring out in a torrent, and this unruly horde of ideas made it clear that if I didn't get them down on paper, they would join forces and drive me mad. No, seriously. The choice was either to write like crazy, or shoot myself in the head. I opted to write like crazy.

I had an idea that wanted to come out.
early on I'd read CL Moore *Shambleau* yay!, Doris Pischera, Andre Norton and they are my heroines!