Why do you write?

WOLFs

I like that acronym!

I write because writing is the only way I have of communicating clearly with people. Do I have a message? Ah, that would be telling. Read my work and see!

This is an interesting question - I've heard a lot of people say that about how they would write even if they thought they would never be published too. I might continue to write even if I wasn't trying to be published, but I certainly wouldn't put the effort into it that I do now. I can't imagine I would find it a fulfilling use of my time to write and then revise, and revise, and revise, and research, etc. just to stick it in a drawer and hope that my grandkids find it and think it's cute.

I do write because I want to communicate. And yeah, at the risk of sounding conceited, I think my perspective has something to offer readers. Again, I can't imagine that I would spend the time writing that I do if I didn't feel that way.

Can we get an mp3 of "Hungry Like the Wolf" for this thread?

Like the acronym! Interesting question, you've proposed.

I write because plot ideas come from many places and I write to relieve my brain of thoughts by putting them to paper. Once I get a story in my head, it will wake me to continue writing. I could have already pumped out 12 pages earlier in the day, but I'm up cranking it out until I can't go any further, then I'm wiped out until the next afternoon when I'm at it again!

And answering your question, I'm not published to date, but I'm still writing, in a sense to remain sane.

I have stories to tell. Lots of them. And I want people to read them.

This one is from Along Came a Spider, I think: It's "because you do what you are."

Hello, wrinkles.

I haven't ignored this posting, just have been AWOL for a bit.

I can't really say why I write other than I just like to. That sounds too pat and I realize that, so I apologize. I have a hard time articulating exactly why I write. It's something I have honestly always done as far back as 4th grade (9 years old), that I can remember anyway.

My mother is a storyteller. She keeps saying she wants to get them written down and published, but she hasn't done anything on that yet. She used to go to different elementary school classrooms for story hour. That's been a long time ago, though.

I guess I write because it's genetic. It's in my blood.

I wrestle with this question a lot, why do I write?

I'd like to say(and probably have here and there) that it's in my bones or that I HAVE to write, or I don't feel right unless I'm writing...but those are all complexes I've given myself because I already WANTED to be a writer. Vis a vis, now if I don't feel I'm writing enough I'm really hard on myself.
But why did it all begin? Why do I continue and would I continue if I'd never get published?
I think I write because when growing up, I loved books, I loved what the authors could do and I wanted to emulate it in every way. As I've grown older my reading tastes have changed but I still feel the same way when I put down a really good book. I almost feel like I made a friend.
I want to create things in this world that do that for other people. I want to help lessen their burdens through communication and compassion much the same way as I've had my burdens lifted from time to time, book to book, throughout my life.
If I KNEW I wouldn't be published in my life time, but there was STILL a chance of publication after my death I'd continue to write and edit.
If I KNEW I would NEVER be read or published, living or dead...I think I'd quit writing...probably kill myself. So much of what I want to do with my life, who I want to be revolves around writing and sharing my work that without it, I'd be empty and curl into a ball and die.
I never really had a back up plan. I've always wanted to be a writer and I won't accept anything less without a fight to the death.

-Gromhard

I write because it's what I do.

My mum taught me the alphabet and how to write words, the school taught me how to string words together into sentences, and then I picked up a pen and wrote. I have written since, but I don't really know why. It's just what I do.

I enjoy writing and as I saw someone on another board has as their signature:
"I hear voices and I like it!"

They wake me in the middle of the night, they tap on my brain while I am doing dishes, they are everywhere I am. How do you ignore the Muse?

Am I a WOLF? I don't think so, it is a little to masculine an acronym for me
I do hope one day to be a WOPEL (Writer Of Published and Enjoyable Literature)

10000

To make friends

Okay this might be a weird reason. I have always had that compulsion to write, the desire to be published, and every other reason that people always cite.

But when you get down to it, I think the reason I write is to create a person I care about and love. I have always been a shy person and as a child, I had relationships with books, not people. Since then I have learned how to interact socially (tolerably, not proficiently), but I still prefer a well written character. I don't react so much to the plot of a book or the ideas of a book as to the people in books.

I fell in love with Mr. Rochester. Athos. Cyrano de Bergerac. Jupiter Jones (of the Three Investigators). When I look at my favorite books, I see beloved friends, not words or pages.

And when I write, I create people that touch me. I create relationships that, in real life, I long for. I am a people-watcher... I observe others, absorbing what they do and who they are. I dissect them mentally. And then I take the good things, the interesting things, and the heartbreaking things, and make them my own.

Saying that sounds kind of psychotic, like I have some sort of dissociative disorder. But if you met me you might just think I was a little distant. The truth is that I'm not... I really love people. It's just that the only way I can truly express myself is with a pen. Sometimes my friends, most of whom would probably consider me a not-very-close friend, are shocked by the force of my affection when I write them a card or a letter. I just don't know how to say those things out loud.

I write because it's the only thing that will always make me happy no matter what. I write to distract and amuse myself from regular life. I write because it keeps me alive and gives me a purpose and meaning.

Why do I write? I wrote like a demon in college, was good (people whose opinions I respected said so), got a few pieces published. For a bunch of reasons I don't want to waste the energy typing out, I walked away from it -- for thirty years. Then, about 3 years ago, something happened inside me. I woke up one day and it was as if, while I slept, someone bolted a wide-bore pipe to the back of my skull and out of this pipe was pouring a torrent of ideas, all of which I felt absolutely compelled to get down on paper. The torrent has not slackened as time's gone by; if anything, it's gotten worse. I call it "the opposite of 'writers block.'" My long-suffering wife calls it "your brain problem -- like the John Travolta character in 'Phenomenon.'"

why

I love the acronyms, especially WOLF.

But I write for two reasons. 1. I'm paid good money to write. 2. I enjoy writing. Take away either reason and I'd be doing something else with my time.

Writing fiction and poetry is therapy for me. I write to purge. I'm less concerned with communicating than I am with expressing, or painting -- the picture i paint is meant for myself; if anyone reading it cares for it, great; if not, that's fine too -- although it's nice when other people resonate with what I write.

Nonfiction is different -- this, I write for an audience; communicating clearly is important here. I enjoy the research and planning that nonfiction writing requires. It helps keep me grounded between orgies of poetry and fiction.

The two are very different, and satisfy opposing incarnations of my 'schizophrenic' writing personality.

I started because I had an idea for a really cool story, and no one else had written it.

One of the reasons I keep writing is because writing that story has forced me to learn a completely new skill that is writing itself. And I figure I'll keep writing for at least as long as I keep learning something about the skill of writing.

I write because; ever since I was a little kid, I'd always fantasized about life and how I would like it to be. I would spend hours at a time fantasizing, even as a fully fledged grown-up. But then a few years ago, I decided to put my fantasies to stories for other people to read; except that I don't write my stories with me in them, or as I fantasize how I would like my own life to be, just parts of it -- yes, the slushy parts lol. I have a very vivid imagination too.

Also, I am a big fan of a French film star, but a lot of his films aren't that good to be honest; I only like them because he's in them. Then suddenly I got inspiration one day for a story, one in which I'd like to see him star in, if I could, and I haven't looked back since. I can now see or hear the slightest thing that gives me even more inspiration these days.

The strange thing is; I had actually wanted to write since I was 12 years old, but it's only in the last couple of years that I've really sat down to get on and do it.

Ellie

I WRITE BECAUSE I CAN.

plus it's fun.

I write because I need to write the stories that come to me. Just like so many of you I have many stories to tell and years to keep on writing them hopefully.

maestrowork said:

I have stories to tell. Lots of them. And I want people to read them.

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Yup, that.

Also, I refuse to believe that I would never be published. Even if it looked like it was unlikely in my own lifetime, I would stubbornly cling to the belief that one day, my genius D) would be seen and appreciated. Like Emily Dickinson, or Georg Büchner or something.

<------------- modest. Not.

wrinkles said:

WOLF (Writers of Literary Fiction). Makes us sound dangerous and attractive to the opposite sex.

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I like the WOLF thing too. And I like to think I'm attractive to all sexes.

Can't not.

In the absence of any likelihood anyone else will ever read any of it, that's the only reason I can provide.

caw

Because I'm awful and I'd like to get better. I do anything I'm bad at again and again and again

Haydee said:

But when you get down to it, I think the reason I write is to create a person I care about and love. I have always been a shy person ...

And when I write, I create people that touch me. I create relationships that, in real life, I long for. I am a people-watcher... I observe others, absorbing what they do and who they are. I dissect them mentally. And then I take the good things, the interesting things, and the heartbreaking things, and make them my own.

Click to expand...

I totally understand where you're coming from.

I write because; ever since I was a little kid, I'd always fantasized about life and how I would like it to be. I would spend hours at a time fantasizing, even as a fully fledged grown-up.

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Me too. I fantasize about interesting people I see in everyday life. I give them stories (but only people I don't know). If I'm on the bus and see a 20-something woman dressed in formal office attire, I think about where she might work or the type of man she might date, thus creating my own story for her.

(This sounds like a strange thing to do, now that I've read my words)

I write because if I don't, my head will pop.
I believe that i have something to say that might help people. I've been through and see so much shit that the words and stories of others are also lodged in my cranium.

I would write even if I knew I'd never get published. I enjoy it more than anything else -- that's why I do it. Not that it's easy, just the opposite. It's the most difficult thing I do and I love the challenge and the payoff--which for me is not material but what I learn in the process. Writing is how I make sense of the world.