Why do you write?

[Mariner]

We're all writers here. So why do you write? Why do you create stories and poems? Why do you feel compelled to put pen to paper?

Are you looking for fame? Riches? Respect? Or glory? Or are you trying to inspire the world with your words? Maybe make people happy? Are you just having fun? Is it a passion or maybe just an outlet?

Who inspired you? What inspired you? A teacher maybe? An author or a certain book? Or have you always just been a writer? What started it all? I'd love to hear it, and I think this could be fun :)

Tell your story!

[Lumiere]

I write because I feel like I should. For the life of me, I don't know what leads me to such an absurd conclusion, but there it is. When I become indifferent about everything else, writing still seems significant. It's bizarre, eh?

[cgrillo]

I write for a variety of reasons. The first and foremost is because I enjoy doing it. Even if I'm not the best, I still enjoy sharing my ideas in a more creative way than simply writing an essay.

Another reason I write is because I do, indeed, desire fame - but not the kind of fame you might expect. I do not want to become some star who is extremely well-known. Instead, I just have a burning desire to be remembered, because I feel like if I live my life without making any significant contributions to much of anything, than I'll just be forgotten and, therefore, have wasted my life.

As far as inspirations go, I have written ever since I read Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. Though my interests have changed, I still love the sea and the 1800's - both of which come from Moby-Dick.

[Brad Coelho]

There's a genuine talent bubbling beneath the surface. At times of inhibition it turns destructive and self-effacing...at times of expression it releases like a hot air balloon, allowing sanity and docile perspective to flow in breezily. It is an obviously tangible legacy, which may be great, putrid or indifferently dated, but it is a legacy nonetheless. It is a disease and a passion. One of which that is cureless and if it were a malady that could be medicated, we’d never seek therapy. It is love, it is loathing & it is lifeblood.

[Mariner]

I write for a variety of reasons. The first and foremost is because I enjoy doing it. Even if I'm not the best, I still enjoy sharing my ideas in a more creative way than simply writing an essay.

Another reason I write is because I do, indeed, desire fame - but not the kind of fame you might expect. I do not want to become some star who is extremely well-known. Instead, I just have a burning desire to be remembered, because I feel like if I live my life without making any significant contributions to much of anything, than I'll just be forgotten and, therefore, have wasted my life.

As far as inspirations go, I have written ever since I read Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. Though my interests have changed, I still love the sea and the 1800's - both of which come from Moby-Dick.

That is a cool reason and very honest :)

I think I do it because it's fun. I really enjoy everything about writing--from writing fiction to journaling. Keeping a diary and a blog is a release for me; I get feelings out and I can also reflect on them.

But I love writing fiction. Being able to create and be artistic in this way is alot of fun for me. Making characters and breathing life into them, or making worlds without limits...it's just awesome.

[skib]

I'll go insane if I don't. It helps me work through things. I suck at talking; I have a retarded tongue. Writing is the next best way of getting feelings across. It helps share experiences, it calms minds, and it entertains, (Yes, I do go back and read my own writing to entertain myself.) As for fame and glory and riches- yeah, that would be cool to get paid for something I do anyway. Not that it'll happen, but I still entertain the idea of sending some of my works to a publisher.

[Lokasenna]

I don't write because I want to, but because I have to - it is a compulsion, albeit not an unpleasent one.

And, it would be very nice to be published!

[JuniperWoolf]

I write mainly because people keep asking me: "Write anything lately?" Followed immediately by: "You should really keep at it, blah blah blah." Like Lumiere, I feel that I should. It's like a responsibility now. Not the best reason, but it beats "fame." Writing strictly for the sake of prestige sounds pretty hollow, and also kind of unhealthy.

[rinoa]

i write, though not very often, to share my inner thoughts - thoughts that I can hardly put them into spoken words in this noisy, busy little city i am living in. In writing, it allows me to pause and think more deeply what i actually want to express, rather than just a fast tongue picking words off the mind. =)

[blp]

To show everyone how it should be done.

[Mariner]

To show everyone how it should be done.

Love the confidence.

[blp]

Love the confidence.

It's more like fury.

[xpertboy]

Personally I write because I love it. I've writing for as long as I can remember. I could say I'm a triple threat. Music, Art, and writing. Lately I focused more on writing because I've seen how positively my publications online can help other people looking for valuable information. I'm more of the informative and factual writer but I also love creative writing. Its where I can let my imagination go wild without limitations. I'm also quite the entrepreneur and I love letting young people know how they can benefit from their writing talent. I wrote one article discussing how you can use your skills to do freelance writing (http://www.teenclassifieds.net/tc-tools-and-resource-articles/freelancing.html) to earn supplemental income, especially in these hard economic times. I have so much unpublished works, but I mainly write give helpful information. At the end of our journey we all want to say we made an impact on someone. Am I right?

[Eno Suibon]

I write for myself, most of the time. I get an idea in my head, and when I feel the need to convey that idea in a more concrete form, I write. I'd probably prefer to be an artist, but writing is what I feel I do best.

When I write something that I feel is pretty decent, I share it with others so I can get their opinions and feedback.

[blazeofglory]

Writing is a great obsession and it comes naturally the way we feel like eating, running, talking, sleeping instinctively. Of course when I started writing as a child it came as a learned behavior. When I had to write essays for my school I did not like writing, but in due course when I had nothing to do and had too much time at my disposal I got hooked to it and now I am infatuated and it is like addiction, the way we turn away from acts of sex and I cannot do without writing

[MrMojoRisin]

I write because I'd go insane without getting all these thoughts out onto some kind of platform.

[Legend]

I write cause I love it , I want also people read my writing
I want know people's opinion
They like it or not:hand:,wonderful
People walk in to a forum for your writing
And wonderful :party:
People walk in to a forum for your writing
and glory you :yikes:
And be famous they have
But i not to become now :crash:
I hope so soon :Angel_anim:
:wave:

[magzarelli]

Because i love it!

[Lote-Tree]

Because I hate it.

[dizzydoll]

As with all forms of art.. writing is an expression which needs letting out. I read more than write and I dont seem to learn anything new because everyone has their own ideas to share. :smile5:

[blazeofglory]

This is a question I always asked and now I have it and of course it engages me but I cannot say exactly why I write.

Why I live may be paralleling this question. Why I think or why I imagine or to be more directly why eat, drink, sleep or mate are some of the basics that I may liken to the question you have raised. Of course these activities-thinking, dreaming, imagining, eating, drinking, sleeping, conjugating are some of the facts I cannot do away with this. More mechanically, speaking is something I engage in.

Writing has always been my cup of tea. It has so many purposes. I write it as a hobby. I am intoxicated with writing the way a chain smoker with a cigarette.

I write for personal gratification -to give shape and color to my imagination, fantasy, dreams.

of course I write as a motive my ego, my eccentricity or arrogance. Yes, honestly, I want to write to earn popularity, to earn a few bucks, and to be rich. To express my feelings to a lover, to express a state of orgasm to my partner, to trade with a thinker on philosophical questions.

How can I say which motives drive me to write. There are so many drivers that drive me to write.

Maybe at times to please my God I write. And at times I write as a time-pass meaninglessly the way we take drinks.

There is nothing I can analogize why I write. What I have written are but a few of them, the things that prompt me to write. But I have not said enough.

[Babyguile]

To get praise from people, to feel like I'm good at something, to feel validated.

That's as deep as I can go with this.

[hillwalker]

Like Blaze I also believe writing can be obsessive. My head fills up with ideas and the best way to create space for new ones is to allow the older ones out onto paper. I have even been known to wake up in the middle of the night with a line of verse or phrase that just has to be written down for future reference.

The love of writing began when I was growing up an only child in the 'back of beyond' without TV - apart from the outdoors most of my pleasure came from escaping into reading, and I soon discovered I also had a talent for making up my own stories.

Like any writer I would love to get published but primarily writing tends to an inner need in my soul - it gives voice to some part of me that wold otherwise never be able to express itself.

Being able to share within a group like this is so rewarding.....

[blazeofglory]

Writing itself is rewarding. Of course the forum like this is platform for those who want to check with whether or not people like what we write. Writing is for somebody to read. We do not speak to ourselves. We think to ourselves but never speak to ourselves. We have a reader in mind while we write. Of course it is thrilling when people read our ideas and comment upon what we write in point of fact. That is when I write something, first thing I do is check whether or not people like what I write.

[Buh4Bee]

I like reading all the responses to why we write. Many of the reasons mentioned makes sense.

I write to make sense of my inner thoughts that get jumbled and confused. It can make me feel better, have control over an unpleasant reality or allow me to leak out all the overly sensitive feelings I can carry around inside.

I wouldn't say I am good at it, but it gives me personal satisfaction and can be gratifying to the right audience- like when I read my poetry at Open Mic. Night.

[lallison]

self expression

[Dr. Cambridge]

I looked at the English exam questions and saw that 20% of the paper involved writing a short story using one of the titles given. The story I wrote originally scored 20% but the teacher later decided he should allow room for improvement and marked it down to 19.75%.

I was under pressure and the story seemed to mysteriously write itself. Who knows what each of us may write until we actually do!

[blazeofglory]

I write for a variety of reasons - to gratify some of my deep urges that cannot be gratified by doing anything at all. Of course I want to express something some emotional flows, intellectual ideas. I may write out of the desire to express some of the feelings that I have been suppressing for long. Maybe I am unable to express something, or there are some of the subconscious things which cannot be generally satisfied in the ordinary course of life and it is writing that enables me to express them. Maybe there are some feelings,some deterred dreams that can be realized by writing.

Of course by means of a character in my writing I may express some of the desires or the experiences, funny, romantic, culturally discordant, socially or ethically incongruous through my writings.

Of course everything is possible in writing. If we cannot say what I want to say I can say by writing. Writing gives me the liberty which I cannot have in the ordinary course of writing.

I cannot travel geographically far and wide and I cannot speak to a large audience verbally but I can speak to them by writing. I can discuss, argue,agree, disagree, please, anger them. I cannot find a greater fun than this in life.

Writing has been a venturesome thing for me and of course I really find life meaningful by writing. Now if I distance myself from writing my life will be so dry and meaningless that I become suicidal. I fashion new thoughts and feelings and my imaginations are still powerful and I travel through my ideas and I feel romantic.

I am at variance with people; I love individuality and want to distinguish myself from the rest. Maybe I want to stand out from the pack.

Maybe I am in live with someone and I cannot express my feelings to her. There may be a barrier between us and writing has enabled us to freely exchange our ideas.

Of course I may write because I want to be immortal for physically I am body subject to death and decay, but my writing immortalizes me. I can transcend such limits set by humans.

I want to write because I have read so much of our ancestors, their ideas and by fusing my ideas with their ideas new ideas emerge and that need to be written down for they are critically important.

I write for so many reasons and of course if I write why I write I may write book of a thousand pages.

[MUMUKSHA]

Of course I may write because I want to be immortal for physically I am body subject to death and decay, but my writing immortalizes me. I can transcend such limits set by humans.

How is that possible? What 'I' will be able to 'transcend such limits as set by humans' exactly. I don't understand how could writing immortalize anything but what is written.

[Dodo25]

Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Iovis ira nec ignis
nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas.
cum volet, illa dies, quae nil nisi corporis huius
ius habet, incerti spatium mihi finiat aevi:
parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis
astra ferar, nomenque erit indelebile nostrum,
quaque patet domitis Romana potentia terris,
ore legar populi, perque omnia saecula fama,
siquid habent veri vatum praesagia, VIVAM.

Ovid: Metamorphoses, Book XV, verses 872 - 879

Which means something like:
"I have finished a work, which can neither be erased by Jupiter's wrath, nor through fire, swords or the the gnawing tooth of time. Let that day (of my death) come, which has only power over my body, when it will, terminating my uncertain span of years: yet the best part of me will be born, immortal, beyond the distant stars. Wherever Rome's power extends, over the lands it has civilized, I will be read on people's lips, and, famous throughout all the ages, if there's anything true in the poet's prophecies, I WILL LIVE".

Sorry my Latin is pretty bad.. Parts of it only remember because of notes.

Ovid wrote this 2000 years ago, and he was right. People still read his metamorphoses.

Edit: This is not necessarily my own view, I wrote it partially in response to a statement above.

[blazeofglory]

I write when I feel thrilled and when something quivers within me; I write when I want to express something deeply and I never can withdraw and it engages me. Not necessary that I write for publicity and of course I love publicity yet this is secondary to self gratification.
I find myself close to God or I feel I get powered by some invisible forces. In the east there is a word called Sabda Brahma that means the word is Brahma, or something divine. I believe in the power of words and I feel enchanted.
I do not know what I write interests the reader but when I write something I feel connected or I feel really powered. As if the entire cosmos shrinks and I contain it.
I feel this is a link that acts as a bridge between the universe I am in and myself. Such feelings drive me to write what I write

[Buh4Bee]

I think I have been on this thread before. I write to cleanse the mind and extract the conflict within. I have great guilt... for what I can't quite articulate. Aren't most writers nuts?

[lostworld]

I write because it sets my soul free. It is an escape from the reality of my own world, and the possibility I can help someone escape their own.

[hack]

I write because the voices tell me to.
I write because I can't not write.
I write because an ancient alphabet calls me.
I write because my hand fits the pen.
I write because I read.
I write because of every word ever written.

[hillwalker]

I think I hear the same voices hack hears.
It's my inner voice which I think every writer posesses; our subconscious I suppose that observes, stores, processes then whispers into our ears those wonderful things we should share with the outside world.

A very interesting thing I heard on the radio a couple of weeks ago - apparently dyslexics do not have an 'inner voice' (when they read something for example they are unable to 'hear' the words inside their head). This came straight from the horse's mouth as it were - a well-known ex-racing car driver who is now a successful businessman and broadcaster (as well as a dyslexic).

And as lostworld says, writing definitely does cleanse the soul.

Long may we all continue to write..... H

[blazeofglory]

I write and write and write and this is my butter and bread and I cannot do away with this, and by writing I can open my soul and all that remain buried within me and for a variety of reasons that remain buried. I have guilt feelings and I had grotesques or things that necessitates speechifying or I fear expressing some of the feelings, urges or drives that are natural yet socially, ethically, culturally at variance. I for instance like to steal or one of the urges that drives me to steal remains completely buried and ordinarily we cannot surface the idea. Writing helps me to resurface what I feel or what I press down for a variety of social, ethical or religious regions. Everyone has a killer's motive or instinct in some degree and the killer in me or the seducer in me is suppressed and of course through my writings I express them. I can be a raper also if I put my inside out completely but ordinarily I am told to suppress this instinct but when a circumstance turns up my instinctive behaviors become manifest.

yes some of the drives or grotesques in me remain deposited at a layer within me and I feel ashamed to express it to people, yet I remain impelled to write them for while writing I can veneer my personality. In fact some of the great stories ever written were reflections of what the writers had experienced in their lives

Of course such motives drive me to write what I write and that is why I write and by writing I feel I am great and vigorous

[gruntingslime]

I liked writing as a child, just making up stories. I was inspired by my brother who I thought was a great writer (when we were both children) he hasn't written anything since.
When I was about 14 or so I smoked pot and suddenly my mind became stuck on the idea that I had to write a story about witches. I paced through my house for at least an hour seeing only red and repeating to myself "A story about witches, a story about witches." I never did write a story about witches, but I began writing anyway. In the beginning my writing was a little more pure, like when I was a child, I just wrote things that I found interesting.
Since then my reasons for writing have become more convoluted. I find myself even more interested in the lives of writers than their writing. It feels like the same reason I keep writing is the same reason I don't commit suicide. Not that I would commit suicide if I didn't write, but the same compulsion to keep living is the same one to keep writing. I guess it's just for the sake of doing something, of having an interesting time while I'm here.
I don't think that's where it ends though, or I wouldn't be being completely honest. I don't really care about fame, but I would like to be published if only because I don't really like doing anything other than writing, and sometimes I don't even like that, so I'd like to earn a living off of it. I want to write well. I often have trouble with "words". I know the stories I'd like to write, have the images or the ideas, but putting them into words can be very difficult for me. Sometimes I feel like I'd much prefer making film, but film is a much more social occupation and most of the time I'm unable to connect with other people. So in a way writing is a solace, creating a new life in my lonely existence. But I'd give up writing in a heartbeat for a chance to live. I would rather use my ideas in the form of concrete actions, so maybe there is a little bit of impotence which causes me to seek out writing as a way to duck out life.
These are pretty melancholy reasons for writing, only at times am I a melancholy person. I often feel like my writing will never see the light of day, so I've partly created a world where I'm actually writing to people who don't exist and I write like nothing is private.
I write because I'd like to be honest, but it feels like all of my supposed honesty comes from an "affected" place in myself. Like in a way this entire message is nothing but a lie because I'm actually writing it "for people", even if one of the main people it is for is myself.
I've always felt there is a divide in what I think and how I feel and what I'm able to express, like the moment it becomes put into concrete words or expressions it has lost its meaning, so I often write surrealism because I prefer to hint at what I'm talking about rather than state it, because most of the time in stating I feel like I've told a lie.
Maybe that's why a lot of people say they're writing for "truth"... not in a truth of what actually is, but a truth behind subjectivity which can never be ultimate truth.

[Caderyn]

I write because I want to get a reaction out of people.

It doesn't matter if they say that it is terrible, as long as they are honest about it. I want people to voice their opinion about what I think about on a regular basis. To notice the absurd ideals society brushes off as normal. To challenge what "normal" is and redefine it as an aspect that isn't so concrete. To toy with people's emotions and expectations. To build up suspense, only to end with a poignant statement that haunts the reader's mind forever.

Either that, or I'm just letting off a little steam.

[grace86]

I write because I think too much.

I've always been one to write; when I was younger, and even now, I have always kept personal journals. Never really had a problem with essay writing - except when it came to a subject I couldn't stand. Professors would say something like "you should write 5-7 pages," and somehow my essay would be nine!

Through these recent years, there have been way too many friends and strangers telling me that I should be a writer - so maybe a month ago it seemed like the first time I wrote something (other than university essays) that had the intent behind it to be read by an audience. So far so good. My writing tends to be a little more journalistic/editorial-ish, but I have tried my hand at short stories. Not something I'm used to as of yet. So, another reason for writing is because so many people think I should exercise that talent.

Hehehe...some people agree with me that I went into the wrong major in school.

No intention of getting published or famous or somehow maintain immortality, but if I can help someone in my writing then that seems to make me content.

[MarkBastable]

Because I enjoy it. And when I don't enjoy it, I don't do it.

[RaoulDuke]

Ego. I like the idea of people reading my thoughts and agreeing with them, and I get a lot of pleasure from going back and reading something I've written that flows well.

[krisgil_aguila]

i don't write at all,...
i type.

[blazeofglory]

Writing has always been something fascinating to me and I cannot live a day without the thought about writing and it has been my life, integrally and spiritually.

I read for writing, dream for writing and think for writing. I was born for writing and yet the fact that I have not written enough aggrieves me. I am aging now and the circumstances hemming me in is not conducive to me for writing.

That is why I am on this forum and discussing with all you guys and girls. That is enlivening me and making feel that there is something called life

[Indyben]

I write poetry because something stirs within me that needs to come out, which is the same reason I read it. Ever had the feeling where you're so overjoyed you just want to laugh out loud, or so sad you can't be bothered doing anything or so mad you're going to explode? That's why I write poetry. I write short stories either for entertainment, or to help me relax or to take a closer look at myself and who I am. I write music because I get a tune in my head that needs to come out. I write reviews because they are fun to write and I get my opinions out. That's pretty much everything.

[xtianfriborg13]

Writing gives me joy, I guess? When I wrote something good, I practically go ecstatic about my own work. It's fulfilling, too, I must say.

[cacian]

Well I write because I can.
I also write because I enjoy and I want to challenge myself and see what I am capable of creating with a language that I speak.

[miyako73]

I like the high when I create something. Writing is creating.

[krishna_lit]

When I was in my 6th standard in my schooling, I had an English text book which was an abridged version of 'Trojan War.' My teacher used to narrate it so well that I witnessed each and every line of the story coming to life in front of my eyes..
The way how that story enchanted me, I can never forget; so very magical experience, like being transported to another place, in this case, to Troy itself.

Then the idea that fictional thoughts can take you anywhere out of the world, into another, into your own, had ingrained deep inside my mind... From then onwards my love for stories started... And, after a long time, I realized that by writing stories I can play God, meaning I can create anything that thrills me, interests me, makes me happy and above all, it makes me live even after I'm gone! Later on in life, I took lots of inspiration from the best selling author of my country, India, Mr.Chetan Bhagat and realized how words can directly influence people when his speeches and writing excited me to the highest level...

These all things made me turn writing stories into the most important purpose of my Life! That's why I write.

[Delta40]

I think it's a rather hard question to answer when you're a non writing writer, not driven to pick up a pen at all. Why do I write again? What is that switch that flicks on and off inside of me called?

Oh well....

I loved all the other posts.