Eight Reasons People Write

You forgot masochism and insanity.

#1, #4 and #6...and can't lie...number #3 wouldn't hurt my feelings either.

out of those, #4. But honestly? Just because I've always felt a strong compulsion to put pen to paper. A need. I don't care if I make money (though it's a bonus). I do want people to read my books b/c I love hearing someone say, "I couldn't put it down!" That I make someone that excited to turn the page is incredible!

But even if no one read my writing, even if it was just for me...I've been keeping a journal of some sort since I knew how to write my name. Because I need to write. That's it.

King Wenclas said:

1.) Identity. To be somebody. A "writer." A badge. A certificate of existence. Now: what to write?

2.) Hobby. Using time. Filling up space in one's life. Doing something. Macrame.

3.) Money. Write a best-seller and retire from life.

4.) Therapy. Personal dilemmas laid out on a page. Journals for an unseen shrink.

5.) Message. An announcement. Having something to say and compelled to say it. A discovery.

6.) Change. Writing to change society, or the culture, or the neighborhood. Or the world.

7.) Immortality. Creating the masterpiece that will live forever, honored by all subsequent generations. A place in future history.

8.) God. To understand or commune with the universe.

Obviously, there's overlap. Many individuals write for more than one reason.

What's your reason?

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I've said this before, and I'll only say it again because it isn't on the list above: I write because the voices in my head won't let me stop.

That's a great list of some sane reasons to write. You might want to start a list of the insane ones.

Probably all of them for me, if we're being honest here.

Though the "why do you write" question always seems ultimately unanswerable to me.

King Wenclas said:

1.) Identity. To be somebody. A "writer." A badge. A certificate of existence. Now: what to write?

2.) Hobby. Using time. Filling up space in one's life. Doing something. Macrame.

3.) Money. Write a best-seller and retire from life.

4.) Therapy. Personal dilemmas laid out on a page. Journals for an unseen shrink.

5.) Message. An announcement. Having something to say and compelled to say it. A discovery.

6.) Change. Writing to change society, or the culture, or the neighborhood. Or the world.

7.) Immortality. Creating the masterpiece that will live forever, honored by all subsequent generations. A place in future history.

8.) God. To understand or commune with the universe.

Obviously, there's overlap. Many individuals write for more than one reason.

What's your reason?

www.blitzreview.blogspot.com
Books needed!

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All of the above at one time or another...and possibly also because it's the only thing I'm really good at.

RemusShepherd said:

I've said this before, and I'll only say it again because it isn't on the list above: I write because the voices in my head won't let me stop.

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That's pretty much why I do it, too. It's because I have tried - TRIED- to do other things with my life. Every time I think I'm out, writing pulls me back in!

None of those.

Most of those reasons are highly unrealistic. Money, fame, recognition, immortality? You have a better shot at that stuff by getting a reality TV show.

I write because I can't not write. It's how I'm wired. How I understand and interact with the universe. I'd love to be rich famous immortal etc., but I'd write even if no one else read a word I wrote. It's in the blood.

leahzero said:

I write because I can't not write.

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That's a pretty good way of putting it.

I am all but #7. Buddy, I already own immortality. I just use different atoms from one moment to the next. #7 I have wrapped up. The other points...they're why I write.

I second Leahzero's reason. Writing, like art, is a non-negotiable activity for me. I have to do it.

As for the OP's reasons, I had to laugh. 'Identity' is one of the dumbest reasons to commit this kind of masochism. If you don't know your identity before you sit down to write, writing won't give you much more of one. 'Fame' is double-edged, and 'Money' is nearly a non-issue for most of us. 'Therapy', 'Change', and 'Message' are nice internal goals, but you'd better be amazing before you inflict them on the world. 'Immortality' and a communion with the universe are not guaranteed outcomes, just messages we put in bottles.

Probably the purest reason listed is 'Hobby' -- playing with an enjoyable activity to see where it leads. And lest someone snarks about hobbies, may I remind them how only higher-functioning animals indulge in play? It's very good for the brain.

Hmm. I guess #2 and #3, but neither feel "right" for my reasons.

I want to. I need a creative outlet. I enjoy it.

Most of those reasons at different times. I'm not sure if there's one up there which would cover "Because I want to entertain others" and yet that's another one for me. I want to write stories that people really enjoy. I don't just mean send a message or try to change them as people, but make them smile, laugh, cry, scream, hide under their beds (Hey, I write horror). The best moments of my life associated with writing? When I shared a poem in the fifth grade that made everybody in the auditorium laugh, when the girls in my class in high school were begging me to finish the rest of a novel I was writing so they could read it, when my cousin stumbled upon a story I was working on and kept asking me where the rest was, every time I hear someone say they like something I've written. I know there's this idea that as writers we're not supposed to care so much what other people think, that we're supposed to be writing for ourselves, and I've done that too, but the feeling I get when I know I wrote something other people enjoyed? That's the best. I wish I did it more often.

I just plain love to create stories and write. It's fun,wonderful,and just a PARTY!

Also,I am quite cray-cray and the voices demand to be let out. I firmly believe that the vast majority of writers are cuckoo for cocoa puffs.

For me at this point in time it is a hobby. A creative outlet and something to do for just me. As a stay at home mom it is nice to have something that is just mine, something I can really think about and research, something I can connect to other people through. Now if i were to make money of it down the road then I wouldn't be too upset about that.

God, all of these, honestly. But you forgot #9: Compulsion.

Yep, plain ol' Obsessive-Compulsive Mania. 'What if?' is dangerously close to 'What does *this* button do?'

When I first started as a teen-ager, then yes, 1, 3, and 7. But in 40 years, none of hat has come to me. I've accepted that none of that will ever happen, and yet I continue to write. So now it is #9, compulsion.

Filigree said:

Yep, plain ol' Obsessive-Compulsive Mania. 'What if?' is dangerously close to 'What does *this* button do?'

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Ha! So true.

Primary reason: the voices in my head insist on being heard .

Of the eight listed, #8 is probably the closest: fiction as a means of making sense of the world on a level that non-fiction is unable to accomplish.

I'm trying to figure out where "narcissism" fits in.

Caveat: I don't think I write out of narcissism, personally.

However, online, I have occasionally tripped across people who apparently are dissatisfied with the level of adoration they inspire, and so they are writing a novel to facilitate the world's adulation of them.

I think that would be covered by a mash-up of #1, #6 and #7.

I write for none of the reasons above, but simply because I love to write. Whatever comes after that is icing on the cake.

None of the above, although I wouldn't refuse a big cheque. I write because the voices tell me to.

You forgot one. My personal reason.


Characters come to my mind, fictional people, and they won't stop nagging at me until I tell their stories on the freaking word processor.


Oh, and I do it for my entertainment. I can't write for any of those other reasons unless I get a literary degree.

"To woo women."

Dead Poet's Society for the win.