Why do you write?

[Hypoxia]

It actually has its own Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorre_**6_Daphetid

Ah yes, John Allen. Alas, the link was broken by LIT's warez. Search Wikipedia for "Gorre & Daphetid".

I recall some G&D imagery. In HO (1/87th) scale, people are small, but he modeled them superbly anyway. Here's a scene with rail workers sleeping under a tree. There's a rail bridge with a lynch mob and a hanged gambler. Yonder are unshaved hobos jumping into a boxcar. It was an ironic mini-universe.

Now, video games steal the magic. Where have all the model railroads gone? They were cutting-edge tech of over a century ago. It's no coincidence that the first computer hacker groups grew from the MIT model railroad club.

 

[SimonDoom]

Ah yes, John Allen. Alas, the link was broken by LIT's warez. Search Wikipedia for "Gorre & Daphetid".

I recall some G&D imagery. In HO (1/87th) scale, people are small, but he modeled them superbly anyway. Here's a scene with rail workers sleeping under a tree. There's a rail bridge with a lynch mob and a hanged gambler. Yonder are unshaved hobos jumping into a boxcar. It was an ironic mini-universe.

Now, video games steal the magic. Where have all the model railroads gone? They were cutting-edge tech of over a century ago. It's no coincidence that the first computer hacker groups grew from the MIT model railroad club.

I think it still exists, but it's one of those hobbies/phenomena that flies under the radar because it's perpetuated by middle-aged to older men who spend all their times in their basements.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I think it still exists, but it's one of those hobbies/phenomena that flies under the radar because it's perpetuated by middle-aged to older men who spend all their times in their basements.

I must admit, I've always wanted to make a working steam model of a Daniel Gooch broad gauge locomotive. I'm handy with wood, but the cost of a steel workshop would be a tad excessive.

 

[PennameWombat]

I think it still exists, but it's one of those hobbies/phenomena that flies under the radar because it's perpetuated by middle-aged to older men who spend all their times in their basements.

Since it's model train time, would it be amiss to mention their role in the pop culture phenomenon that was "The Sopranos"? The death of Robert "Bobby Baccalà" Baccalieri, Jr., when he was shot to death late in the last season shopping for model trains. His hobby had been mentioned (not exactly with admiration) by his compatriots and a couple of scenes showed it in his garage.

Last I was past there on a visit to the area (early 2018) "Hobbies Unlimited" is still going strong on Interstate Ave. in North Portland. They've branched into drones (of course) but apparently model trains still a part of their business.

There is also the upcoming "Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club Annual Open House Every Weekend In November" (Nov. 10, 2019, if you'll be in Portland. I never went when I lived there.)

 

[PennameWombat]

<snip>
Words pry apart easily. Memories too. Model rails rust and fail. Life sucks.

Alas, yes.

Pick the least likely. That's always best -- when at a decision point, take the most unlikely path. It provides a juicy slew of consequences.

Good idea. I have a character who is the appropriate sort of "carrier" for driving someone mad, I've had her offscreen but her memory and reputation have been threaded through a number of tales. People might be getting a tad too comfortable with her MIA for some time

 

[Voboy]

I have a character who is the appropriate sort of "carrier" for driving someone mad, I've had her offscreen but her memory and reputation have been threaded through a number of tales. People might be getting a tad too comfortable with her MIA for some time

Fun, innit? I’ve got a hot little number that has appeared as a tertiary character in a number of my stories, often as the subject of conversation by others. She could be the soul of virtue, or conversely she could offer blowjobs for heroin. There’s no way to know... until I feature her in a story.

And I doubt I ever will. Muahahaha.

 

[Handley_Page]

Why do you write?

Because I'm no good at mime or drawing. . .

 

[lustatopia]

I write because I am in love with making ideas real, or at least sort of real, in the sense that language is more real than an idea in your head.

The writing process is the ultimate transmorgrification. You start with an idea, right?

An idea is a vague, ephemeral wisp of entangled nothingness made up of electrical relationships between synapses in your brain, like a dream you are lucky to even remember until the alarm goes off.

Ideas are always perfect, shiny, spotless in their slightly out of focus fuzziness, because your hope for them sketches in the gaps with pure potential. But when you start to write an idea down something very strange happens.

The original idea is really a cone of possibilities, but the multi-dimensional geometry of that cone is utterly collapsed by the process of making it real in language. The perfect idea falls from the heavens with a splat, to become this living semiotic hot mess with a beginning, a middle and an end, as well as warts, a missing tooth and maybe a dissonant chord or three. It wants to wrestle with you, it struggles against your ministrations, defies your commands, disses your wishes.

It is your baby and you love it like a mother. You clean it up, feed it, nurture it and finally, when it is time, you have to let it be its own story - not your story - and release it out into the world where it will become of its own merit.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Let's see...

I write because I like too. I like writing stories I would like to read, so I figured there would be a lot of readers out there who would also.

I think I'm one of the few writers who doesn't feel the need. I'm not driven to write by any inner ghosts or demons. I just like to tell stories that I would like to hear or read.

I don't feel guilty if I don't write for a couple of days or a couple of weeks. I do however have a shitload of stories that need finishing and that does bother me somewhat but, not enough to get all panicky about not finishing them.

So in other words I write because I like too. Wait, I said that already.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I write to pass the time and for the pleasure of exercising mind and vocabulary.

I try to write well because that brings views and good ratings and because those in turn frustrate the trolls. Waves at the little chinless wonders.

 

[Hypoxia]

Writing is telepathy. I write something; readers grasp my mental vision.

Writing is time travel. We can go anywhere, anywhen, anyhow.

Writing is confession and make-overs. Do it right this time.

Writing is mental masturbation. Get yourself off before arousing others.

Writing is mental experimentation. Pull on the lab gloves; whip out the scalpel.

Why write? Why not?

 

[BrokenSpokes]

I've never written fiction before. I've had a specific story in my head for a few years (no idea why or where it came from.) After reading CareyThomas' stories (multiple times, they're so good), especially Ghost Of A Chance, I was inspired to try and get mine out. So far it's been okay, I think.

When I posted it I had no thoughts of scores, or anything like that. I actually figured it would be a blip and disappear into the Literotica archives. As this story isn't one I've ever wanted to share w/ anyone IRL, this place just seemed like where it belonged.

I honestly think once I've completed it, I'll be done. I don't have any other burning ideas, or deep need to write. At least, I don't think I do. I'm looking at 7-10 chapters, then that will be my writing career. (I have rough drafts of chapters four through six, and I know where I'm going in the end. Length will depend on feedback.)

I will say it's changed significantly from the story in my head as I've gotten it down on the page, which has been the biggest surprise to me, and a trip I've been enjoying.

 

[oggbashan]

I write because I have to.

 

[Hypoxia]

When I'm doing photographic stuff, I'm a photographer. When I don't, I ain't.

Replace "photographic stuff / photographer" with "musical stuff / musician" or "constructive stuff / maker" or "writing stuff / writer" for more truisms. I write when I feel need or desire -- THEN I'm a writer. Maybe I can stretch that to cover research. But dreaming about writing ain't writing.

Right now I'm doing minimal stuff so I guess I'm a minimalist. Except when collecting photo gear, music gear, craftworks, etc. Then I'm an accumulator, which is also the obsolete name for a computer thingy. I suppose I'm that, too. But a writer? Not at the moment.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

What about you? Why do you write?

I like to tell stories and build worlds. I love history as well.

My first love is SF and is where I write the most. I started writing on LIT because I was beta reading a manuscript that had slavery in it that reminded me of something a had seen on LIT a long time ago. I skimmed and over looking at several I in my hubris thought, " I can do better than this."

So i created a universe that I really enjoy playing in. I have also found that it seems to help my, call it mainstream, SF writing as well.

In the end I am hoping to sell some of it on Amazon. Because I am not averse to making my writing pay. Even a few dollars extra will not go amiss.

My stories: https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=4605551&page=submissions

 

[Rustyoznail]

I write because I have to.

I suppose the follow up question is - why did you start writing here in the first place? And what kept you here? Seventeen years is a long time in internet years.

 

[oggbashan]

I suppose the follow up question is - why did you start writing here in the first place? And what kept you here? Seventeen years is a long time in internet years.

I had been writing non-fiction for decades as part of my career - text books, manuals, reports, instructions etc. I was writing fiction as a hobby when my then back pain made any activity other than sitting painful. I attended two consecutive creative writing classes but my technical skills were far beyond the rest of the members. I also embarrassed the tutor by coming third twice in a local writing competition when she was unplaced - two years running.

I started on Yahoo Adult Groups (mainly for specific fetishes) because the stories I found there seemed awful and I was convinced I could write better ones. Some group member suggested I should look at submitting to Literotica because I might get a larger audience.

As soon as I joined, after lurking for a few months, I posted some of my recent stories and got far more responses than I had ever had on Yahoo. Some Yahoo Adult group members followed me to Lit just to read my stories.

I still have a fetish following and that affects some of my writing. Soon afterwards Yahoo changed their policy and structure on Adult Groups and wrecked them for most users. I was getting far more feedback in Literotica, found the themed contests and started writing for them.

The themed contests became an essential structure of my writing year. As I became older, although the back pain was less apparent, writing fiction was still a hobby that I could do when I needed to rest physically. Now I am dying and very unsteady on my feet. I have to be sitting for large parts of the day, and I am very aware of my backlog of unfinished stories. If I don't finish them soon, I might be dead before they are completed.

 

[tomlitilia]

I started out as a reader, and I still prefer reading erotica over visual porn. At least it keeps the brain active while indulging in our carnal nature. And writing erotica for me is just an extension of that, tweaked into creativity. I thought I'd give a try, and it turned out I enjoy it. And one reason I continue is that I find it improves my written language also for other areas--writing is writing. At least that's what I tell myself to justify spending a lot of time on it

 

[Inkhorn]

I write for a variety of reasons: Escapism, wishful thinking, the desperate hope that I’m not as horrible a writer as I fear I am, to see if there are any others of a similar mind or if I’m just a freak, the desire to entertain others, social validation...

As someone posted earlier, it’s also to get the stories out of my head. To make them real on some level. If any of that makes any sense.

 

[gordo12]

Why do I write?

Two reasons really.

Retired and tons of time on my hands. It was always something I wondered if I could do. Many Anons have since assured me I can't. I don't listen

Secondly a lot of authors here write sex scenes and then wander AWAY from where I want it to go. This is most disturbing when you're having fun. So now I write it myself.

 

[Hypoxia]

Why do you write?

Because I'm no good at mime or drawing. . .

Amen. One of my sisters is a gifted muralist, the other a commercial artist in various media. I can only draw flies. But I'm pretty fair on string and wind instruments while they only play the radio. I've been paid to write stuff and they haven't. But my sorta-sister is a best-seller author, writing much better than I, and doing performance-level martial arts. Our talents all vary.

Now I'll subvert the OP question, from "why write?" to "why don't I write more?" I'll blame medications for distracting the voices in my head.

 

[PoisonPen33]

Because for most of my life people have told me I should be a writer and finally decided that maybe they're right.

I've done short stories, I've done fanfic, I've done PBEM and forum role-playing, I've done downtime scenes for LARP's, and people have always said I should be a writer. It took two friends, an off-hand comment, and a muse, but now I have one completed novel on this site and a notebook full of story ideas, and I've never felt more...more...

...what's the opposite of directionless?

 

[Javahead]

I started writing again because I wanted to see if I could still do it.

Then I continued because I had stories in my head that insisted on being let out. And because I learn by doing, and I hope that each story I write will be a little bit better - or at least avoid the same mistakes - than the one before.

And because I'm having fun.

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

I write for fun in my free time. Which is copious, because I don’t work (but it’s odd to say that you’re “retired” when you’re in your twenties, or that you’re “jobless” when you have job-like hobbies.) I cull a good deal from my own life, and develop plots, places and characters around my friends/acquaintances and my SO. I post online because my SO and a couple of friends encouraged me to; and keep posting because they’re excited about my stories.

 

[OneAuthor]

I write because there are ideas in my head screaming to get out. If I didn't type up at least a few of them, I'm sure they'd all make me go insane.