Why do you write?

[CatrionaGrace]

Writing entertains me.

 

[GlitterRain]

I write because I feel like I owe my characters something.

Why, you may ask, if they don’t exist and have never “done anything” for me?

To which I say: Oh, but they have. Their stories help me learn about myself and the world around me. They help me want to continue learning when others my age have stopped. They help me figure out my place, my aesthetic, my fears and desires.

I started writing so young, I don’t actually know what I would be like if I had never met my characters and started writing their stories.

So yes, they have given me something. And all that they have given me is priceless, in my opinion.

 

[Mr Mononoke]

I just like destroying them and seeing if they can put themselves back together.

Sorry for the tags everyone, just a lot of words connected this way and I wanted to avoid making a reply here because it would be long and maybe my reasons wouldn't really make sense... so I've been pleasantly surprised that I can highlight so many points that resonates a lot with me.

I'm not keen on destroying Luxuria, but I completely agree that rebuilding is something that makes me write and write a lot.

When I write a story, it's like a mental puzzle I have to figure out. Then, when the puzzle is solved, there's a great sense of satisfaction.

The few who have read my stories will know that they are a pieces of a puzzle that I make the reader fit together. Even within the story I have a picture then throw all the pieces into the air and see if I can fit the pieces to make a different picture. Hope that makes some sense, but I completely agree to that sense of satisfaction when you are writing and building towards the end of a story. I actually get a little down when I reach the end because it is the end.

Initially, when I was a kid, it was the purest form of escapism. I could create a character (who was always very similar to me of course) and I could build a whole new world for her. A world where she was loved, where she needed no one, no one could hurt her, and she always won.

When I got older it turned into therapy. I could write out all of the terrible things I've lived through and experienced, filter them through fiction, and still gain catharsis from writing about them, while also letting people know they aren't alone. Pain is both universal and relative after all.

I sit closely with your story, Trish but in a different order and the time scale is much condensed. I started writing 6 years ago as a creative exercise, then that moved to cure a pain, then that became an outlet and moved to a place for me to find solace. Pain is universal and relative... that's a beautiful line... and yes... I had the pleasure to read from a writer that they said this about a story I shared with them and it made me think deeply about writing to now where it is no longer all the above... but I write to prove myself, to chase a dream and to not think so poorly about the person typing.

the kids in my family - whether in artwork or stories - seem to favour superheroes!

This made me smile Louanne. I sent a story to a writer here and in that world, the protagonist is in a house of students who were talking about what super power they would want. The MC already had one... in which he could easily become 'invisible.' From the dark theme of isolating and hiding from the world, the MC meets another who makes him realise and open up a little more... it provided a nice uplift whenever I want to disappear.

Their stories help me learn about myself and the world around me.

I wholly agree... I think what we write, how we write, how we try and communicate a message to a reader... makes us learn more about ourselves.

I don't think I can stop writing... as there is so much to learn, so much I need to get better at.

 

[Louanne Learning]

I write because I feel like I owe my characters something.

I feel the same way. I feel like I have to do right by them in telling their story.

 

[Dogberry's Watch]

The best way I can describe it is I feel like myself when I write. I am nothing to no one except myself when I sit with words and I get to see the way they fit together and they become things of value to others. I wrote in my old progress journal that I don't want money, that I want hearts. One of my best friends was sending me her reactions while reading my first book. She said a few things that made me cry because I realized that what I'd always wanted was a reality. My words made someone feel shit. There's a way to let that go to my head, but it made me feel like I am so lucky I get to do what brings me the deepest sense of self and peace.

 

[Night Herald]

So many reasons.

I've always loved stories, I'd devour every kind I could as a kid and it wasn't long before I began wanting to tell some of my own. Spent much of my life in relative isolation and having to "make my own fun", which often manifested as some form of daydreaming, and some of the more interesting stuff got written down. As long as I can remember I've had more imagination than I know what to do with.

Writing is also incredibly theraputic. It lets me engage with parts of me that are so often buried under chronic overthinking and anxiety et cetera. It's a space of comparative peace and clarity, and even if I should stray into an unpleasant bit of mental landscape, I can look at it with a degree of impartiality and maybe wring something beautiful from it. When I'm deep in the zone I'm at my most alive and joyful, perfectly present in the moment. Writing is perhaps the best way I know of to get to know myself and explore the inner richness.

I'm passing fond of language, and enjoy playing around with words and phrases, concepts. I love exploring strange ideas. I've even learned to like the problem solving that comes with building a large-scale story. I love planting seeds and watching them grow. I love creating characters and watching them accrue personality and depth. I love thinking that I might be creating something that brings joy to others, or at least teases a laugh from someone, somewhere. I love writing stupid jokes and then coming across them long after I'd forgotten what I wrote.

At the end of the day I write because it's great fun and hugely rewarding on so many levels. Not really interested in profit or acclaim, I do it because it's my favorite form of play and my best way of expressing myself. Life would be so much duller and less colorful without it.

 

[Naomasa298]

Without trying to rain on anyone's parade or judge why anyone else wants to write, since we all have different reasons, I write because I want to entertain readers, no more or less. I'm writing something I find interesting in the hope that readers will find it interesting as well. It's not therapeutic for me - in fact, it can sometimes be distressing, because I often use my own experiences to form my characters, and if I'm writing something emotionally resonant, I have to feel it too, otherwise how can I expect my readers to? And that emotion might be sadness, tragedy, hurt, or amusement.

And I take a somewhat opposite route - I can only write believable characters if I have *already* confronted those traumatic experiences and processed (or tried to process) them. The characters aren't a means through which I confront them, they're a record.

If they help other people confront or come to a realisation, great, but that's not the goal. The goal is to make a reader go "I'm glad I read that", for whatever reason. And a reader might interpret the story differently to me, which is fine too. But not every story has meaning beyond the words on the page.

 

[Pik]

One friend told me that they picture the world and all the characters in detail in their head, a bit like living in the paralel reality. Most of the time I am not that imaginative or don't function that way, I don't know what is going to happen in a story until I write it down.

 

[Montecarlo]

I think I write for moments. Moments of emotion and inspiration. That feeling when the last page is read and the book is closed. Those scene endings that make you stop, take a walk, and reflect. I try to replicate my favorite feelings with original stories.