Why do you write?

[Louanne Learning]

Why do you write?

Story-telling is a human instinct—as much as eating and breathing. Our earliest social societies used it to pass down knowledge and wisdom, and we use it today not only to connect with other humans, but apply our highly-evolved imaginations.

How about you?

 

[Luxuria]

I think I answered this prompt before. But let me do it again: Because I can't stop writing.

Also, anger. Lots of anger. It just fuels my need to write, because I will read a book. Hate it. Then, want to FIX whatever I didn't like. So I write.

 

[Luxuria]

P.s. I love that you wrote this whole poetic things about humanity and society. Then I replied: Anger.

 

[Naomasa298]

Because I can.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Also, anger. Lots of anger. It just fuels my need to write,

This suggest that writing for you is a kind of catharsis, and it's my guess that that is a motivation for a lot of writers.

Getting it all out there on the page. it's a release.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Because I can.

You can make yourself a cup of tea, too. Surely, there's a difference?

 

[Naomasa298]

You can make yourself a cup of tea, too. Surely, there's a difference?

Nope, I can't. I don't really drink tea, and any tea attempted by me tastes foul. Even the tea I *do* drink (green tea) tastes foul.

Coffee, on the other hand...

 

[Luxuria]

This suggest that writing for you is a kind of catharsis, and it's my guess that that is a motivation for a lot of writers.

Getting it all out there on the page. it's a release.

Actually, yes. But I also use it to explore the darkness of humanity. I know that sounds like 'Edgy McEdgeface', but I feel I truly do. I don't shy away from a lot of things and want to understand why different events happened.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Hyperactive imagination in my case. And a general sense that modern life is repetitive and exceedingly dull. And I have a lot say that shouldn't be uttered in public.

 

[Louanne Learning]

explore the darkness of humanity.

Ah, yes, attempt to answer questions you have yourself. I have written some dark characters in the past. And I think, when you're writing them, you want to understand them?

 

[Louanne Learning]

Hyperactive imagination in my case. And a general sense that modern life is repetitive and exceedingly dull. And I have a lot say that shouldn't be uttered in public.

You sound like a natural.

 

[Luxuria]

Ah, yes, attempt to answer questions you have yourself. I have written some dark characters in the past. And I think, when you're writing them, you want to understand them?

Yes, I do want to understand them most of the time. Some though, I don't. Because I have 0 pity for them. But most I do wish to understand WHY they act the way they do. But this mainly applies to historical fiction characters.

As for my original characters, I just like destroying them and seeing if they can put themselves back together. I want to explore the darkest parts of their minds.

 

[Louanne Learning]

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.

Combine that with a love of language, and it all fits together very well.

 

[Homer Potvin]

love of language

Yup. I'd add that, too. Words are a lot of fun. Infinite combinations and meanings. My other love is music, but notes are almost the opposite. They are very finite. And while their combinations are myriad, their functions are relatively rigid. It might mean one of six things, but not one of 600.

 

[deweyfisher]

I write because I like telling stories. Mostly for fun, because I'm actually in school for law!

 

[Pik]

I have friends that are better than me in verbal expression and friends that are better in written expression, so I don't know why. Hoping there is something only I can share even if others have shared it in their own style, pov and so on.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Hoping there is something only I can share even if others have shared it in their own style, pov and so on.

I am a big believer that each and every one of is an original, and we all have something to say. I was steered to this belief by a classic book by Brenda Ueland, which I recommend all people who want to write read:

If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit​

 

[Naja Noir]

Because someone has to tell their stories, since they themselves cannot. Also, as was said above, I love words, when put in the right order they have a certain beauty that the eye could never see elsewhere.

 

[Trish]

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.

Through it all though (and still) I've always imagined other lives for people and myself. Sitting at a stoplight, look to the right, see a lady and a kid, and just.... make up lives in my head for them. Where they came from, where they're going, what happens next. It's just something I've always done so when I can't or don't want to do the trauma writing, I do that. I pick a song, an image, a sentence, and just write a story about it

 

[Louanne Learning]

when I was a kid, it was the purest form of escapism.

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