Why do you write?

[Riven___Caulfield]

Hey hidden long time.

...yeah Jodie Foster was always sooooo sexy. I was very disappointed but I not surprised when I found out she was gay. Curiously, a little proud of her - maybe.

Poor John Hinkley.

And I must say, I myself identify very much with what perdita says below in the next post. And that wonderful Byron quote. He was such a nutcase - wonderful.

 

[Guest]

Mab., Anais Nin said it: "We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection."

I write because I love the English language (which is also why I read). I love to manipulate it, play with it, bend to it, discover it over and over again.

I also write because it helps me think, nothing helps me more (except at times my therapist).

I write because I love stories and poetry, and the reality that I can tell some is exciting; the telling is extremely satisfying, pleasurable most times.

Perdita

I also understand these quotes:

To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive in scribbling at all.
—Lord Byron

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.
...
Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these things. –Emily Dickinson

To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now. —Samuel Beckett

 

[English Lady]

I write for so many reasons...let me see if i can put some down here now.

I write to please others. Nearly all my writing is done with an audience in mind, even if the audience is only one person.

I write to please myself. I am a creative type person and as I don't play music,Ican't sing and although i can pretend to be arty now and then words are my only real creative outlet.

I love words. I adore them i love playing around and seeing what I can make with them!

I write to empty my mind of the ideas i get to make room for more ideas to live up there.

I write because of those ideas, those ideas come to me and all I can do is give them an outlet.

but simply i write because I have to. Writing is so much to me and i'd be lost without it.

 

[Guest]

I keep opening this thread, reading the posts, thinking about why I write, then closing it again, because I just cannot put my finger on it.

I have to. Is that a good enough answer?

I have so much going on in my head all the time, that I think if I didn't write I'd probably go insane. It's my way of channelling all my dark and twisted imaginings; my way of expressing my dark side, without going out and becoming a serial killer myself.

It's also a good way to re-live and permanently record stuff I've got up to. When I'm an old woman, I want to sit and read those stories again and think, yes, that was me, I did that!

I've spent a lot of time recently writing with someone else, and it's a wonderful way to get inside his head, too.

Yes, most of what I write is fiction, but a lot of it isn't, and even that which is comes from me, my own experiences, my desires, my hopes and my fears.

I write because I can.

Lou

 

[scheherazade_79]

Escapism. It's nice to get all the feedback etc on Lit, but I'd be lying if I said I wrote for other people. At the end of the day I write for myself. My life may be pretty boring and ordinary, but when I write it gives me the chance to experience new and extraordinary things. And the better you get at the craft, the more real those extraordinary things can become.

 

[impressive]

Mab., Anais Nin said it: "We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection."

Ah, but sometimes -- sometimes -- we write to taste it for the FIRST time. As such, we write to live and to love.

 

[logophile]

Re: Riven dh'aling

If I do this, what will they do? If I act this way, how will they react? If this happens, how might they respond? What if...

You and I have that in common. The physics law "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" plays heavily into my interactions with people. I am a pleaser by nature and HATE conflict. Because of that, I spend a lot of time weighing the implications of what I do. Exactly like you said above: If I do this, will he do that. If I say that, how will he answer.

It's interesting because I've never thought of it in terms of my writing before but I think you're absolutely right. I think it allows me to construct a story and look at all the possible ways every event can go.

 

[Mark James]

Addicted

Is it the same for you? When you write a story, is it like slipping into a hot bath? Does it feel like a warm security blanket around you? The ability to do anything, to experience anything - getting excited when your protagonist is - being frightened when they fear - and still safe beneath the warm blanket.

I write because I can't not write. I'm addicted, and writing is my drug of choice. Well, actually, it's not a choice. I think that if I didn't write at least five out of every seven days, I might lose my mind.

I write because I love the feeling of slipping into my world. I don't feel like God in my world because my characters will fight me tooth and nail if I try to do something they don't like.

But, few things equal the pleasure of sitting in front of the keyboard and feeling the so-called real world slip away as I slip into the reality of my world.

I write because it feels good. I am never more free than when I write. On those days when the words flow like magical waters from my fingers, it is ecstasy. No drug on earth can give me the rush of nailing it, getting it just right.

My pleasure in writing also comes from knowing that if I do it just right, I can pull someone else out of their dull reality and pull them into my world and maybe, just maybe, they'll feel the magic too. For me, that's the ultimate payoff - to give my readers at least as good ride when they read, as I get when I write.

 

[yui]

I think I fall into the I-write-because-I-have-to camp. It's a compulsion. Always in my head I'm narrating, sketching a scene, talking to myself, describing what I am seeing. I can go days, even weeks and not put anything down on paper, but always—click, click, click in my head—the words are turning.

I fall when I write.

Time disappears.

I have lost-time incidents.

For me, it's a little bit like being in love…I don't care what is happening around me, I'm totally focused, and in that moment, life is very sweet.

Luck to all,

Yui ^_^

 

[Riven___Caulfield]

Well now, that one inspired me to write a little story for you.


I wasn't always a young man. Once I was a young boy of about twelve, living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I'd always enjoyed making little story books of scrap paper, but no more than I enjoyed building lego or riding my bike or stealing from the local mall.

But one night I had a dream, and this was it. Because we're mostly writers here, I'll write it in that classic hey-this-is-a-dream style, Italics.


The Professor and I were flying along in our hot-air balloon. Let me tell you I'd never met the Professor, but I knew him to be a very trustworthy gentleman, and certainly someone who bore me no ill will. Indeed, he cared for me as a father cares for his son.

I remember the air was hot and sticky when something went wrong. Slowly the balloon began to descend, and I peered over the edge of the basket to see a small town below. The balloon was floating towards a pond at the edge of town, and soon we had landed in a soft blanket of grasses.

The townspeople came out, and welcomed us. They'd never seen something like our balloon before, but they had lemonade and plenty of tools to help us patch it.

As the adults talked, a blonde girl about my age game over and offered me a drink. She smiled at me. And the professor said it would take three months to repair the damage.

...and then we were standing back in that patch of grass. It was three months later and the balloon was fixed.

The little blonde girl and I were staring at each other, holding hands. I loved her. I loved her I loved her I loved her with all my tiny twelve-year old heart. I had no idea what happened in three months, but this love was the most important thing to have occurred in my lifetime.

But the balloon was fixed. And we kissed - and it was very soft. And I got in the baloon and we flew away, the professor and I.

Well, that morning when I woke up I was still so filled with this feeling of love I felt like I would burst. I tried reading books on the nature of love, but that didn't help. Instead, I went to our family's Hewlett Packard 386 and started writing a horrrrrrible novel, the principal theme of which (I felt) was love.

Sure it had demons and adventures and horror - but it was chiefly a romance. I remember writing it, and I was always looking forward to adding, looking forward to finding out what happens next. I remember existing wholly in that world. I remember, sometimes, feeling bathed in love.

I had to share that 'cause of what Yui said;

...it's a little bit like being in love…I don't care what is happening around me, I'm totally focused, and in that moment, life is very sweet.

Made that memory come floodin' back. Heh - that's why I started. I was lookin' for love - and I found it.

...curiously enough, I used to suffer lost-time incidents as well. Though I remember it being intensely pleasurable.

Yours,

-Riv

 

[fairysong]

Recently, I have taken to writing stories. I find that it feels good to get thought, ideas, feelings and imagination out of my head to where I and others can see them.

I write for the same reason I read. I guess I fell in love with the written word. As a child I was fascinated by the images words could bring to life. I loved reading, and soon I began to write. Not stories, but just write letters and my diary. I found reading and writing to be a way of expression, a way of life.

fairysong

 

[rydia57]

I write....

Well I draw, I crochet, and design logos. I love making things. But I write to relieve stress, or I need to let off some steam and when I've got something to say. Mostly, I write for the sheer pleasure of it, and being able to create something everyone else might like as much as I do!

 

[rgraham666]

I had to think about this.

I write because I'm creative and writing is a good outlet for that.

I write because I like all the positive feedback I get from the stories I've written.

And I write because it may be the only way left for me to make a living in this world.

 

[SensualCealy]

I would say my reasoning for writing is excapism, and I feel I am good at story telling. I wouldn't say I am good at writing because I am very poor at grammar. The story telling part I think Im good at, now if only the two would coinside Id be happy!
C

 

[she_is_my_addiction]

Because my parole officer has deemed it unacceptable for me to kill anyone.

I'm in a sarcastic fuckin mood today.

 

[oggbashan]

I write because I have to and I can't paint, sculpt or draw.

My muses are very demanding ladies when they are around. They insist that I write and have exquisite tortures available if I don't.

If only I had as few as nine muses...

Terpsichore does need a large area to perform in.

Og

 

[KarenAM]

A writing friend of mine once said, quoting someone famous:

"My muse is a harsh mistress, and she carries a whip."