Why do YOU write?

[Lossengondiel]

Why do you write? do you write because you're bored...you have nothing else better to do? Or do you write because it is a way to express yourself? Why do you write?

For me, I write because most of the time something is horrible in my life, and by writing I, I rewrite my life and the situations to work out my way, so when I read over it again it gives me a better picture of my life than it really is at the moment.

[Arebeth]

That's a good question. I must confess I have no idea. I don't choose to write, I need to. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and know I have to take a sheet of paper and a pencil and write down anything that would make me cry if I wouldn't.
Sometimes I feel like I'm not living in the right place, or not with the right people. I just feel alone, like everybody. But for me the only way to cure it is to...write. It's something like the social life I don't really have:). My mind is full of impossible loves and dreams that will probably never come true. That's why I act, why I sing, and probably why I write, too: to live what I can't really live. My real life is so boring, so far away from what I want to know, and I'm afraid it will always be, if things remain this way. I'll keep studying for years, brilliantly, because I'm too ambitious to give up. I wish I wasn't. I wish I could spend my life writing and singing and acting. But I know I won't.
I wish I'd have nothing to lose.
So, as it's not especially the kind of things you talk about with people, the only way to survive for me is writing. I hate private diaries. I hate the idea of writing something that nobody will ever read. You never know, maybe one day I'll finish a story and someone will finally understand it. People just think I'm weird, because I protect myself by being self-confident and by speaking all the time. But sometimes I need to stop acting. That's why I write.

[Lantarion]

The kind of thing that I've been working on for about two years (which has only this year taken proper form) I write because I love creating. I don't want to control anything, I want to create something enormous, something unimaginably large, and then I want to put it into context by applying some reality to all the mythic grandeur.
I also love languages, and the few I'm working on now are my topmost concern: their history, their make-up, their rules, their usage, their aestheticness. It's very hard to define why exactly, but I just enjoy the process so much.

[Kelonus]

I write because it's a way of showing what I would like to be a part of. You know saving the world an all, despite the dangers. I dont know how to write a book to it's proper form, but I still write. It's creative and sometimes I like to be alone on my time and escape to the world I have created in a book.

[HLGStrider]

When I saw the title of this thread I thought immediately, "Because I can."

I wondered if that summed it up and started probing myself for a deeper reason, but I figure that is probably the most likely as it was what came immediately to mind.

I believe creativity springs from God, of course. I believe he put in me the desire to create and the ability to do it, and that I shouldn't "Neglect the gift that is in me," to be Biblical.

I occasionally write love stories just to fantasize about what I want love to be like.

I occassionally write because I believe something very strongly and need to say it.

I almost always but my beliefs in my writing, partly because I can't help it. . .or I could, but making a story that went against my belief system would be like lying to myself. . .so you might say I write because I believe certain things and want to talk about them.

I can always come up with an odd idea out of nowhere, and if I don't have anyone to talk to them about (and I could never have enough listeners to keep up with my ideas) I write about them.

[Ledreanne313]

I write simply because my wishes are beyond the granting of any...and so I write how I wish the world to be.

[Kelonus]

Ledreanne your not alone in that, but as someone told me once, the world we live in today from when we were born till now, was meant to be. Though I understand where your coming from.

[Ledreanne313]

Thank you, you are quite comforting:)

[FoolOfATook]

Because if I didn't, I'd quickly be booted out of the English department. ;)

For me, the question of why I write is as silly as asking a fish why it swims. I do it because that's what I do, and I can't imagine not doing it.

[Zale]

Everything I do at school is all very fact-based & empirical, all bathed in cold logic, so I have a lot of creative energy running round my head. Writing is my way of letting this off, because I'm useless at all other 'arts'. Writing I can do, because it's an indirect way of expressing the self; a finished piece of writing is something independant and beautiful (well, maybe not all of mine turn out that way). It would be a shame to let all the wonderful thoughts in people's heads vanish without trace; we then set them down on paper in a pretty setting and call it a story.

[Aglarthalion]

I write because I love to explore my own imagination.

[HLGStrider]

I'm sure it is a dark and dangerous place. ;)

[Aglarthalion]

Originally posted by HLGStrider
I'm sure it is a dark and dangerous place. ;)
Oh, it is indeed... ;)

[Arebeth]

It's sometimes surprising what you find when you explore your imagination... In my case, as I'm already haunted by.. em, em... Anyway, it can't make things worse for me. The most strange thing is when you write about something real, it seems completely obvious to you but nobody else gets the point. That's the only reason why I can sometimes get my writings read. Or it would be too dangerous, I think. (for me or for them, I let you decide)

[Estella Bolger]

Writing is a way of expressing all my feelings at the time, be they or deep or on the surface. If I am really enjoying writing a story, I become almost excited about certain scenes and fall in love with my characters. If you have a creative talent, you must express it and not surpress it. Then you never know, you could be a best selling novelist. If not, your writing will cheer you up when you go back to them.

[Manveru]

I mostly write when I am inspired... Inspiration is what I need... I think every artist needs one;) Sometimes a small, even tiny detail is useful. Without it my 'works' are dull;).

"I thought all your 'works' were dull", says a mysterious voice from behind Manveru's shoulder.

"Shut up. Nobody's asked your opinion..."

[Kelonus]

Inspiration is very helpful. Iv'e finished one book and plan to write a part2 and 3. I know it will be a good book, but I need someone to edit and publish it. Then my trilogy will be unique, storywise. Though I spoken with a publisher, Im not sure what is going to happen yet. I feel my stories wont go nowhere, but then again..... well goodluck all in your works! :)

[Kahmûl]

I write because I like creating my own world ware I can have it exactly the way I want it.

[FoolOfATook]

I can't believe I forgot to mention the money. I write for money when I can find people kind enough to offer me such a deal. (Don't laugh- it's happened ;))

[celebdraug]

i dont write, (stories or essays, i mean) i'd love to but my grammer is quite bad! :(

[HLGStrider]

That's pretty easy to fix.

A. Read.
B. Write and get someone with good gramar to correct you and learn from that.

[Manveru]

Originally posted by HLGStrider:
That's pretty easy to fix.

A. Read.
That's right.
Like my previous 'deep thoughts' were "saying": Read, read, not only cRPG and video! (actually it was a quote from one of our PL writers - one of the best fantasy writers in my country).
So I read (a lot, I've read more books in last six months than in my whole life;)) and from time to time sth "pops up" from my brain and then... my fingers just simply "dance" on the keyboard;).

:D

[Saermegil]

I write because I read.

Reading<-->Writing
Stimulant<-->Reaction

Like yesterday, I was reading John Fowles(The French Lieutenant's Woman), and he was using a technique i'd never seen before, and I was like : I gotta use this sometime soon. So I will probably write a short story to go with that(though for sure not set during the Victorian Erra (Yuck!))

[Khôr’nagan]

I think I write because, after years of suppressing my emotions and keeping any pain buried inside, I finally need to relieve myself of the stress of it all. I just need to express myself, and writing gives me a method of doing so. When there's something I feel strongly about I can type up pages and pages of writing about it without a second thought.

Poetry for some reason comes to me naturally. Sometimes I have to rough my way through, but then there's the occasional time when suddenly it really just flows out of me freely, and I can get a good 50 lines of poetry in ten minutes when this happens. It's really incredible.

Then, of course, there's the feeling of accomplishment that comes with the completion of what you write. For instance, I recently wrote a 636 line poem outlining the history of Melkor and Sauron, and I passed it in to my English teacher for extra credit. This week has been February Vacation for me, and since I passed it in on the thursday before vacation started, I have yet to learn of what she though of my poem. But I feel a strong sense of accomplishment for having done such an incredibly long poem.

And might I note, just F.Y.I., that I am only 16 years old as of the moment, and I think that's all the more reason to be proud of my accomplishment. Not to mention tha fact that I wrote the poem in the combined effort of only about a week at most.

So that's why I write: To express the deepest of my feelings that would otherwise remain hidden and completely unknown, for the pleasure of writing, and for the sense of accomplishment when you've completed something great.

[Isthir]

I do not wish to steal JRRT's statement, but I do not feel that I, myself, am creating that which I write, but am more along for the ride and record what I can and what I remember. One may attribute this to inspiration or what not, but I feel that I am truly a narrator.


-Isthir

[Saucy]

1.) I write because, well its almost silly, but when i was younger i never liked how the stories ended, id always make up a better ending in my mind, even now with some books i find myself making up an end. So i guess i write to create my own stories zactly the way i want them!

2.) I write because, i need to escape from reality

3.) i write because I usually create an opinion on EVERYTHING, and so i might has well write it down, if its a good one.

4.) i write because sometimes it is easier to express urself on paper other then in words.

[syongstar]

I am a musician who loves to sing.I let words flow in hopes of creating lyrics

I enter the glade of a darkwood,
and stand where my ansestors stood.
I offer myself to the army of trees,
working to make the air fit to breathe,
working to make wood for our homes,
working to make food for us to live on.
And in exchange they ask of thee,
beautiful words and music to caress
their leaves.

[Eledhwen]

I write because stories, songs and poems build up in my head, and if I don't swap them out, they ping around, giving me no peace, like the ball in a pinball machine. But once they're out, my mind can rest until the next one comes along. (That's apart from a book I'm writing, which I have already written out as a screenplay, but won't part with until the book's finished. The recrafting is taking time; I want to repaint the picture from my mind in such a way that the reader will see what I see - all of it.)

er... did I make sense there? :confused:

[The-Elf-Herself]

Yeah, actually you make a lot of sense Eledhwen. That's one of the reasons I write. Ever since I was five, I've always seemed to be an observer, someone who watches others, who wants to know why people think they way they do, how they do it; I've always loved pulling sentences and words apart to dissect them(yes, grammar freak and sociology nut here). However, money's always been tight in my family and people tended to look down on anyone who tried to write or wanted to write for a living, so I never spoke about it, assuming I'd never be good enough. Then as I grew older stories and ideas would just pop into my head and start to form themselves into something that I couldn't really contain for long, so I started scribbling in a private journal just to clear my head. It wasn't until last year that my awesome English teacher really started to push me to show my writings to others and not to be afraid of my urge to write. My first poem 'The Meeting' ended up flooring everyone for some reason, and gave me enough confidence to focus on writing as a future. *shrugs* It comes as naturally to me as breathing, I just ended up holding my breath for fifteen years(I'm seventeen this May).

[Melian_the_Maya]

I have been a writer since the ago of 8, so for almost 11 years now. I do it because it is a necessity, like the very air I am breathing and it is the only thing that I am willing to dedicate time and patience to for the sake of improving. I have written already some longer and some shorter pieces of writing... how do you write by the way? I don't mean whether you type or write using a pen on paper. For me it's a bit like this:

I first get the idea of a character. Then this character and I battle with each other, so that we get to know the other one. Once we have a clear idea of what the other one is about, I start describing him, giving him a past and a present and the makings of a future. It's not always a happy future, though. After this, I analyze what sort of feeling this character gives me: hope, happiness, hatred... and then I find the music to fit it. And then I play that music all the time, over and over again as pages are written by hands which most of the times don't seem mine. Is that freaky?

[Eledhwen]

How do I write? My stories sort of tell themselves to me; sometimes starting with a place, or a phrase/concept, or a person. Sometimes the beginning, middle and end all occur to me at once, and I have to start writing to get the details. The process can be painstaking, as the grammar, phrasing and vocabulary will be different depending on the era, or the character. Going away and coming back to a piece will inevitably result in alterations, and I have to discipline myself, when writing longer stuff, not to spend too much time revisiting when I should be ploughing the next furrow.

[Lonna]

I write because I have to, like I must breathe.