What are your core motivations for writing?

I'm sure that some people never really give this much thought. But writers tend to be deeper thinkers for the most part, and some more than others.

Obviously there are reasons why we do most things, and sometimes we don't even know why we do what we do. But dedicating yourself to a writing career, or a major writing project can be exasperating.

If you could list the reasons why you first began writing or why you keep writing, it might be entertaining, enlightening, and helpful to those who are jumping into the vocation.

You may have a hierarchy of reasons: Supplemental income, you think it will get you babes, you feel a need to vent, or express your creativity, you need affection, you want to save the world, and believe that through your characters you will touch many lives, it's better than pushing burgers at McDonald's.

I'll begin: This is a true and somewhat pathetic story. I remember making up an entire fantasy when I was between four and five. At the time it was not due to my natural purity of heart. Without recounting my entire dysfunctional childhood, I developed a fear of the dark, so much so that I was afraid to get out of bed and go to the bathroom by myself. So, I made up an entire mythology and hoodwinked my brother into believing it. Through the prototypical means of befriending and feeding Elves that came to the back door, I was invited to a fantasy world. And each night while my brother was asleep I ventured to this land. It was rather grand as you can imagine, something on the scale of Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch. And my brother bought it.

So, I'd recount the previous night's encounters, and as a carrot, I'd offer to take my brother there when I went back that night. Obviously, he would be ticked off. "You said you'd take me last night." But I'd said, "Don't you remember going? You were with me. Come on, you couldn't have forgotten already...Then I'd recount his night and what he'd seen, and he was somewhat pleased with that, although he was disappointed at not remembering."

Well, it was hardly a noble birth of a story telling career, but he'd get up and take me down the hall every night for a time.

Obviously, the creative bent to write may be a natural part of your personality. I've written for much of my adult life. And deep down, there is a part of me that really wants to change the world. But mixed in, I've seen my share of what I'd call "more impure motives..." to achieve some sort of status, or to become financially successful. I realize that some would not consider them impure motives, but in the sense of wanting to change the world for the good, I'd place the other priorities well below that, and if it came down to having option one) change the world for the good, while giving up all hope of fame and honor, or two) Fame and honor, but you'd simply be no more than a diversionary entertainer who had little true impact on the hearts of men, I'd hope deep down that I'd choose number one. But the heart of man can be quite deceitful, and who can know it?

I think you pretty much covered it -

For me, the creative outlet really makes me feel good. I feel dead and frustrated when I'm not doing something creative on the side. Writing brings more satisfaction than other arts for me.

I also like other people's approval. I try not to depend on it, but I have to admit I really like hearing that people like my writing.

There is some vanity involved, but I think that's mostly connected to the approval issue.

I'm just documenting some interesting events for myself. Caught the writing bug here and decided to make it as professional as I can.

If I am pleased with the results, I will submit. Otherwise, I write exclusively for my future generations.

Hmm. Good question.

1) Because I enjoy it.
2) Because I have lots of stories rolling around in my head, and they're probably better off out than in.
3) Because I love reading and feel some need/desire to give something back.
4) Because I think I can write something that will give some people enjoyment.

And, yes, there's a part of me that would like to get some money from it, or some nice reviews, or some kind of recognition. Mostly, I think I want to write stories that people enjoy reading. Having a few devoted fans, who bought every book I wrote, would please me more than winning some literary award, such as the Booker.

Interesting answers. There's one I'd like to comment on.

There is some vanity involved, but I think that's mostly connected to the approval issue.

As altruistic as I'd like to be, I think that approval is a powerful aphrodisiac, and that disapproval can be as powerful of a crippler.

In a sense, although we are writing for an audience, I feel this is probably a weakness that all of us deal with to some degree, but others seem to have risen above being influenced by people's opinions. And I think it is a strength when you get to the point where a need for approval and fear of disapproval are not so powerful.

I've always been a writer. It seemed like the natural thing to do, like breathing or reading. I honestly don't think I could ever NOT be a writer. It itches at me, nags me, pulls at me nearly every day.

I was a lonely, dumped-on kid and I think that many writers come from this background.

Later, I began to make money from freelance, not enough to survive, but some money is a significant step in a writing career.

Finally the transition to full-time consultant & writer, with much of my income from retirement.

As altruistic as I'd like to be, I think that approval is a powerful aphrodisiac, and that disapproval can be as powerful of a crippler.

Click to expand...

There's no denying the power of such approval but I find that disapproval sometimes motivates me even more. I have a stubborn streak in me that can be most irritating (or so I've been told) and there are times when I simply refuse to give up on a thing. Having someone tell me I suck at something imbues me with an "oh, yeah, well I'll show you" attitude that makes me even more determined to figure out what I'm doing wrong and how I can do it better. Undoubtedly that has happened with my writing and I'm a better writer because of it.

There have been other things I've tried that I eventually did give up on. I finally had to accept the fact that my musical abilities were mediocre at best but I didn't come to this acceptance easily. I spent years and years learning to play a number of musical instruments and writing dozens of absolutely horrible songs before I reached the inevitable conclusion. I've finally become resigned to being a great enjoyer of music rather than a great creator of it, but I hated giving in.

Beth

Good question. I believe that writing is my calling in life. I was born to write. If I don't write I will die. :\
Composing comes easy for me like washing my hands and everything else I have to work at.
My core motivation is answering my calling while giving it my very best.

Second try to respond - sorry if this shows up twice.

At a very early age, I listened to family members read aloud and fell in love with the printed word. Once I learned to decipher it, I read voraciously thereafter.

Living in poverty-stricken circumstances, I entertained myself by daydreaming, though I thought of it as "telling myself stories." These narratives filled all my spare time and a log of work time. I followed them while doing chores, walking a long distance to and from the school bus stop, and in the period before falling asleep at night. I could hardly wait for the school day to end so I could continue the current story. And I could hardly wait for the conclusion of the current story so I could begin the next one in a line of topics waiting in the wings of my imagination. I was the hero of every piece, of course.

I began writing short stories in third grade, but it took another dozen years before I finally sold one to a magazine, for what was at that time a princely sum. Then I diverged into a totally unrelated career and submerged my love for the written word into a fair amount of formal and informal writing required by my profession. Only recently have I turned again to the writing of fiction, in addition to an opinion column.

Like others, I also find that approval is the sweetest payment of all.

For me, it's something that I've just always known I wanted to do. Back in school, many, many years ago now, I remember we had a writer in to talk to our English class and almost everyone was saying the same thing. I had a mini-epiphany of 'Wait a minute, none of these people are ever going to lift a finger to make it happen - heck, I'm probably going to sit around not doing it either.'

So I decided that I'd be the one that would. And here I am.

because it's usually better than dealing with real people. i just wish i could write stories for dogs.

being an only child, something had to fill in the dead spots. i considered formal art training, but i'm just not interested in that. i can string a few chords together on guitar and have it sound no worse than a lot of garbage on the radio, but i'm a far cry from jimmy page. i tried sculpting and discovered i utterly suck at it.

i'm just another shlub who has pretentions of creativity and writing seems to be that thing that gets the best response. i had some encouraging teachers, too. if i won the super-lotto tomorrow i'd still write. it's simply a part of my own entertainment and hopefully it can be a part of other people's, too. i simply fall into the psychological criteria of someone who likes to write. it's the only thing i ever wanted to be besides master of the universe and the world's greatest lover, which is no surprise if ever anyone did an in-depth profile on me.

i guess i want to be a writer because no one's going to mistake me for anything else.

I'm new to this forum so I guess this is a good place to first post.
I've been reading since I was four years old and for a long time reading was an escape for me, from the real world. Even before I started writing I always loved to tell stories and hear them from others. I started writing short stories when I was eleven and it quickly became my favorite thing in the world to do and I can't ever see myself doing anything else.
My main reasons for writing are:
-I love it. Creating characters and worlds and bringing them to life is exhilarating.
-I hope to create an outlet for other people, It's great to imagine someone else reading my words and being touched in some way by them.
-It's the best way to get out my opinions and feelings.

Because it's my personal declaration of independence; it's my way of telling the world that I exist.

To relieve the pressure of what's going on in my head.

Because it's a fricking blast.

Groupies.

I'm God of my own universe--the fictional one that I create. That's power--I'm the puppet master. Shy, quiet and a very reserved little agoraphobic, writing is the only medium in which I am truly the brave hero. Others (my characters) do my bidding. It is a form of control.

Prestige. Fandom. A legacy left behind. I write non-fiction books for money only. I honed my craft as a teenager writing love letters to girls. Was too shy to face them. I won their hearts with words. Been a scribbler ever sense.

Tri

I write because I love to read. When I was in elementary school I fell in love with reading despite the fact that no one I knew liked to read. I visited the library a lot because my family couldn’t afford to buy me books (and honestly they didn’t think books were worth the money). Because I never saw anyone buy a book, I though that by the time I was old enough to buy one, all the bookstores would be out of business. Eventually I realized that this was not the case, thank goodness. I met people who shared my passion, and now, I want to create something beautiful to share with other people.

There are only six things in life worth doing.

Learning something new.

Eating.

Having sex.

Practicing martial arts.

Riding a Harley and / or Hang gliding.

Writing and / or reading.

The rest is just killing time.

why

Things to say I want people to know.

Why?

From the way things are going just now with agents and queries, it appears that my main reason for writing is to provide interesting reading material to.... me. >:

Re: Why?

I write for me. It's simply a conduit to express my frustrations, joys, sadness, or boredom. I submitted one of my pieces for a contest and since then I don't share my work.

I'm a perfectionist and if my work isn't perfect I simply refuse to share it and I will be the first to admit I'm not a great writer.

I just like to tell stories and quite frankly I'm better at 'telling' stories than writing them.

But anyway, yeah... I write for me. Period.

Re: Why?

I like playing with words and ideas.

Re: Why?

When I was 18-20, I wanted to be a writer basically to show off. I wanted to show the world what brilliant wordsmith I could be, and that my insights and attitudes were God's gift to the literate world.

After making a single attempt to write a novel at 21, it became clear after a few weeks that I had nothing really to say at all. So I told myself I'd try again when I was 40. I forgot about writing and became a musician / painter / cartoonist / wacky flake.

Despite all the creativity, life in general was boring, and not very hopeful, so I adopted a healthy regimen of recreational drugs. I began to daydream that just behind the scenes of my ordinary life, there were exciting plots unfolding. I began to see evidence of these plots in real events, conversations, in the lyrics of music, in everything I focused on.

For a while I lost sight of the fact that I was daydreaming an started to lose my grip on reality. It was quite frightening and so I eased off the weed and the alcohol and put the brakes on my daydreaming.

A few years later I began to notice that my internal monologue was beginning to write spontaneous dialogues. My train of thought throughout the day would continually derail and I'd find myself imagining a court scene, or a conversation between two lovers, or three characters discussing an absurd predicament.

Finally I realized that what I was doing was writing, and that if I didn't open the valve and let some of this stuff onto paper, my imagination might build up a head of steam and blow my skull open.

--------

Why do I write? You might as well ask why do I eat, or grow hair, or talk. It's just a natural function of my mind. Getting it onto paper is a wonderful experience. It brings both sides of my mind into the task, and in those hours where I'm writing, I feel like a whole person. The gap between fantasy and reality is bridged in a sane, legitimate way.

But venting isn't the only reason. I want to get to the point where my writing can engage other people. I want to record my own imagination in a way that can "play" on other people's systems, you know? If I can do that, then I go beyond self-integration to the higher level of social integration - true communication.

I guess I write to bind all the worlds together.

I'm with Hconn. I do it for the chicks.

Plus I love having people think I'm rich when I can barely afford ramen.

I guess I'm the odd ball out. I never thought about being a writer until I read an article about Robert Heinlein writing his first short story to make enough money to pay an overdue bill. I needed money, so I read a grammar book and some Writer's Digests, then sat down and wrote a short story solely with the intention of earning some extra money.

The story sold for good money, and that was that.

But in writing the story I found I greatly enjoyed the process of writing. It produced a definite buzz. It was certainly far more enjoyable than manual labor at five bucks or so an hour, which was how I earned my money up to that point. When the check for the story arrived, I quit my job and became a writer.

So I first sat down to write with money in mind. Then I found it was a highly enjoyable process, and one that I apparently had a knack for since what I was writing was selling.

I also found few things on earth, and none I've experienced, except maybe a purely lazy day spent lying on the bank of a stream pretending to fish, beats the life of a writer.
I work from home, I set my own hours, I have no boss, and I get paid for doing something I find enjoyable. And if I buy a pencil, a notebook, or a magazine, or a novel, I get to deduct it from my taxes. What more could I ask?

Changing the world for the better never entered into it, and still doesn't. The best way I can change the world for the better is to entertain people and take their minds off their problems for a few hours.

It isn't what we write that changes the world for the better, it's the people we write about. There are people out there fighting and dying to change the world for the better. There are people who risk all sorts of horrible and deadly diseases in an effort to change the world for the better. There are people like Mother Teresa who spend their entire lives among the sick, living in poverty and filth themselves, to change the world for the better. There are lone young men who stand in front of an oncoming tank to change the world for the better.

I sit in a comfortable office, in a Lazy Boy recliner for first drafts, and in a plush leather-covered executive chair when at the keyboard. I have air conditioning, a coffepot and a small refrigerator holding my favorite beverage within easy reach. I have a great stereo and cable TV. I even have a drawer full of snacks. I write short stories that entertain people for an hour or so, and novels that may entertain them for seven or eight hours. It seems rather pretentious to think this changes the world. And if books do change the world, then it seems the majority of books I read would change the world for the worse, not the better.

I think reading is an important activity, but if books change the world it's only because, like newspapers, they tell the stories of people who change the world. Writer's are just the middlemen.

In writing, I don't think we get such options as changing the world or gaining fame. And I would, in fact, say diversionary entertainers often have far more impact on the hearts of men than all the serious written attempts in the world. I'd be willing to bet that that far more people have changed how they behave based on genre novels that are pure entertainment than on serious books meant to change the world.

Re: Why?

Writing is a drug. When I get totally engrossed in what I am writing, fiction or non-fiction, time passes in a dream. It is a version of being in the zone. It isn't that I don't know what I'm doing or that I'm not aware of the craft aspect of writing, but the entire outside world falls away, and when I'm finished writing and return to the outside world, I am always refreshed as if I have been away on a vacation. I occasionally have the same experience when playing the piano. I think it is because doing either activity well for me requires total mental engagement. I don't always achieve this state when I am writing, but I always aim for it and it is addictive in a way that no other job ever has been.