Curiously why do you write?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faAacaaA-kI

This Elgar masterpiece is a Bach fugue. if you know fugues tiu recognize it immediately
Elgar called the piece
A devil of a fugue."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ESgXqWvd5o

If Bach fugues interest you, try finding a copy of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Amongst other things, Hofstadter discusses how Bach put Easter Eggs in his music.
Reading this and Metamagical Themas enriched my thought process as a writer and person in general.
So maybe I could add my love of reading to one of the reasons I write. If I can give just one person a new thought with something I've written, the way other writers have influenced me, then maybe I've given something back to the creative karma pool.

If you'd turn on your PMs, you'd get quite a bit more responses to reading & enjoying erotica.

Richard

Sardonic amusement, revenge and schadenfreude.

Like someone said earlier, the voices in my head.

I have bipolar and a myriad of other mental illnesses that keep the voices in my head busy, so to let them out, I write.

I almost always have some sort of dialog going on in my head. Rethinking old conversations to see if they could have gone better, or just differently, new conversations if I'm thinking ahead, but almost always have a conversation in my head.
I have had more than one person tell me I write believable dialog, so at least the voices can be a good thing.

And yeah that living out fantasies in a way...

I dunno know why y'all write TL/DR but my own excuse is, I write something or other (fiction, non, songs, haiku, propaganda, etc) when I feel like it. No rhyme nor reason. It just happens. I have nothing to blame but my inconsistency.

CoffeeWithMonkeys said:

Like someone said earlier, the voices in my head.

I have bipolar and a myriad of other mental illnesses that keep the voices in my head busy, so to let them out, I write.

I almost always have some sort of dialog going on in my head. Rethinking old conversations to see if they could have gone better, or just differently, new conversations if I'm thinking ahead, but almost always have a conversation in my head.
I have had more than one person tell me I write believable dialog, so at least the voices can be a good thing.

And yeah that living out fantasies in a way...

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Many years ago, I spoke with the head of a far-north group. He told me that after a while up there, the guys would start talking to the squirrels - that was OK, quite normal.

After a while more, the tree rats would start talking back. That was a warning sign, but still within limits.

The trick, he told me, was to catch them before they started listening to the squirrels.

I always find it interesting to hear why others write; I think we can all say it stems from some sort of self-love-hate relationship, as a means of relaxation (which often vexes us none the less) and almost a way to vent the excess build up of crap that floats around in our heads.

When I was young I suffered through quite a bit of anxiety and didn't get much sleep because I would always replay whatever stupid situation of the day over and over in my head. It would wind me up, I'd get stressed out and fret over it for most of the night. By happen stance, I decided to make up a situation I *could* change...it was all down hill from there.

Writing was my secondary focus, music was my first (film my third) but in a way they often correspond. Do I do any of them professionally? Nope. But I do maintain all of them as hobbies and it allows me a way to relax; I write almost daily in place of other forms of entertainment.

Erotica wasn't my go-to category, I have haunted Lit for years but struggled with writing an intimate scene between two characters so I started reading more stories on this website, then dove in head first as a writing exercise. Since then I've been playing with the ratios of plot-porn, trying to find the mix that suits me.

Whatever your reasons for writing are, don't take harsh comments as "negative." Feedback is feedback--take it with a grain of salt but understand that sometimes it brings up a good point, a way to improve yourself and make your craft better. It is really difficult to improve at something if you don't have a small amount of humility about you. Plus, look at negative feedback like this--

1. they read your story,
2. it effected them enough that they felt the need to say something about it
3. while good feedback is nice, it really isn't useful. "This is an amazing story!" doesn't really tell you what you need to know in order to get better. "There were so many typos," does give you a way to improve.

I think the main thing is to just keep at it. Practice, practice, practice!

I write because I've loved making up stories as a kid. I was too shy in high school to do theater, so I wrote a bunch instead.

I began writing and reading erotica because it helped me work out my own kinks in the safest way possible.

I continue to write because it's nice to see even a tiny trickle of income from the stuff I put online.

Write? Why do I write? Well, the main reason, is so I'm not board all day. The other reason is I like what I write and I write what I like. Simple as that.

As for comments, votes, I really don't care. The nice ones are nice and the others, I laugh my ass off at them.

The rude ones I delete. The personal attack ones I delete. The others I laugh at.

I like the world building, and the character creation parts of it. Also knowing that I can make other people feel things.

Somebody I know recently wrote something on a social media account that rings true to me, to the effect that writing is unusual in that it provides both instant and delayed gratification. I think that's true. There's something a little miraculous about the act of writing fiction and seeing words come out of one's imagination and take shape on paper or on a computer. It's just as satisfying later to look back on a completed story one has written and think, "Hey, I did that!" I find it very, very satisfying, even if I know the stories I write are trifles and nothing to get too worked up about.

I write because.

The period above was put there after looking at the unfinished sentence for an hour.

I have always written, almost exclusively in my own head. It is only recently that I have sucked up my cowardice and let others inside to see. While not as prolific as some, I seem to be holding my own as far as responses go.

To be totally honest with myself, I don't know why I am writing. Maybe it is the ability to live vicariously through the characters I create, or maybe, as several have said, it is an attempt to placate the voices in m head.

James

I do it just for fun. And it helps me keep my imagination going...

Flixity said:

I like the world building, and the character creation parts of it. Also knowing that I can make other people feel things.

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You should check out Ezra Klien's interview with NK Jemisin where the latter talks about world building and shows how to do one in real-time. Absolutely fascinating to listen to - https://player.fm/series/the-ezra-klein-show/i-build-a-world-with-fantasy-master-nk-jemisin

bi11ionaire said:

You should check out Ezra Klien's interview with NK Jemisin where the latter talks about world building and shows how to do one in real-time. Absolutely fascinating to listen to - https://player.fm/series/the-ezra-klein-show/i-build-a-world-with-fantasy-master-nk-jemisin

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Wow, thank you. I will check it out.

I just love writing. My therapist* asked the same question and as I told her, everything from the creation of another world populated by people who I have absolute control over, to the basic act of making a mark on a piece of paper and knowing that any other person can read that mark and understand it, is amazing to me.

As far as I'm concerned, stories are what our species does. The idea of not telling stories, even if it is just to ourselves, is alien to me. I'd be more interested to hear why some people don't write.

*I'm a high-functioning aspie.

Flixity said:

Wow, thank you. I will check it out.

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You're always welcome! Let me know what you think of the episode.

bi11ionaire said:

You're always welcome! Let me know what you think of the episode.

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Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I loved what she said about reading more non-fiction books, and books about history. If we understand our own world better, it becomes easier to create our own worlds.

Iwill have to check out her writting too.

Thanks again.