what motivates you to write?

slum dog

i was thinking of starting a novel but I'm not sure if im doing it for the right reasons.

what motivates people out there to write?

Smartly Dressed

Self satisfaction.

I'm so selfish. :pac:

EileenG

To be rich and famous.

To write the books I want to read (so I'm juvenile, sue me)

To write something that stop my kids despising me (not sure it's working).

To take out all my bitter twisted fantasies and sadistic impulses on the characters in my book.

To actually have something to show at the end of the day.

cobsie

An unstoppable compulsion, since childhood

To be famous and by that fact alone, get revenge on the tormentors of my youth

To not have to work a jobby-job anymore

To leave something behind for my kids

Because it's what I'm good at

pickarooney

Just to have something to do that doesn't revolve around work and family, really.

TanG411

I write to live another life.

IgnatiusJ

Writing a novel is a lot of extremely hard work. You will only do a good job if you have a fundamental desire to write.

i-digress

I read daily, and have done since I was a child. I'd rather read than do just about anything else. I love writing, and I want to write as a career. So far I've completed two novels, and am in the process of writing two more.

draylander

self-delusion mainly

jackthelad321

Sometimes I write because I believe i have something to write about. More often it's out of guilt that i (just) should be writing more. When I read something written really well, it inspires me to want to write, but when i get around to it I am usually working on exhauster energy.

I detest most of what I write, and most of what others write. It'd make you wonder why i want to write at all. And yet here i still am, posting away here, scribbling nonsense into pads.

Lastly, what often makes me sit down and write is the lure, the romanticism of writing itself. That goes after about 10 seconds. Just after I get comfortable.

Phantasos

I write because there are plots inside my head, kicking and screaming and demanding to be let out. And until I get them onto paper, they won't leave me alone!

I write because although I have plots in my head, they aren't fully formed, and I'm interested in where the characters will take me and how the story will end. In some ways writing is like reading - you don't know how the story will twist and turn along the way.

I write because I have this vague hope that it could actually make me money and be my full-time job someday. Wouldn't that be just awesome?

I write because seeing my work in print is the most rewarding thing ever. (Only a couple of short stories, but it's a start!)

kickarykee

The passion for telling stories.
I've always loved to write and tell stories that could tell others about my beliefs, make them think about their own, make them think in general and maybe even teach them somthing.

What motivates me to write in certain moments is just ideas that pop into my head and want to be put to paper.
It very often happens while I'm driving around or watching a movie, drifting off a bit.
Then I either get home and start or turn off the TV and start

bigsmokewriting

We did a quick poll 'round the office, where we're all writing junkies:

1) a love of writing
2) it's cheaper than therapy

johnadam

Reading and Lots of reading


john

EileenG

bigsmokewriting wrote: »

2) it's cheaper than therapy

Love that one. Yes, just about anything painful in my life ends up on paper.

Zaixora

The idea that if I don't write, there may not be someone else to write what I would have.

Insect Overlord

Haven't written a poem in 15 months at this stage.
Tried to motivate myself to write a short story last year, ended up getting torn to shreds.
I've started reading again instead.

bitter_lemon

i used to write a lot. i studied journalism and spent 4 years doing that. i haven't written in ages. i need to let my creative juices flow again. what a waste!
it is a crime not to do so. even if you do it for your own self of purpose it is not in waste. this thread made me see that i need to get back to this so thanks

Faylum

I'm not a person who has ever been strong at Spelling or Grammar and in many ways nothing much has changed there. A few years ago i made friends with a few goth/hippy people and found that many of them shared stories or poems with each other. Being someone who usually frowned on poetry and personal stories i found it hard to adapt to and most of the things i wrote, reading them now make no sense, the spelling is terrible, the grammar is awful and they make no sense unless i was in that mind set again.

However i was encouraged by the same people to continue doing it because some (not all) of the stories had amazing one liners. This was enough to encourage me to do more. Although i am some what embarrassed about the content i was writing about i still remember the feeling of freedom and of anticipation from other peoples reviews. Its exhilarating in many ways to have people read you and your mind.

In a very short space of time i progressed beyond what i though i could ever achieve and because i was determined to spell things right and expand my vocabulary i improved in that as well. I know writing isn't for everyone and most the time it is very hard to come up with fresh ideas to unwritten stories but i think writing has helped me become more intelligent and expanded my imagination and creativity.

I don't know why people write but for me its a way of solving the endless riddling and questioning in my head, its a way to steady myself and quieten my mind. In other words it helps me focus and concentrate at the same time it gives me an amazing amount of freedom and inspiration.

You shouldn't need a reason to write a novel it should be an uncontrollable urge to create and display what really rolls around in the far reaches of your mind. There is nothing more satisfying than dancing that pen back and forth across the page. xD

XaverP

Zaixora wrote: »

The idea that if I don't write, there may not be someone else to write what I would have.

I like that point - and is it not an exciting thought to produce something that has not been and should have never been had it not been for you. As you say.

eternal

To exorcise pain and feeling.To hold something three dimensional which is emotive ,rather than let the fleeting thoughts escape.

Strangerthings

I write to express my emotions the best way I know how

Most importantly I write in the hope that something I write will be as meaningful to someone else as it is to me

bigsmokewriting

This also helps motivate writing:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z-Ur-XwVXHE/TVtZqEz3VUI/AAAAAAAAFqQ/1_QXK1VljK4/s1600/A%2BYear%2BFrom%2BNow%2BYou%2BWill%2BWish%2BYou%2BHad%2BStarted%2BToday%2B-%2BKaren%2BLamb.jpg

Cas.

Hmm I write because :

- sometimes I have good ideas but I tend to forget them easily
- some are dedicated to certain people
- I like the compliments :P

MarkfromMann

Why do I write?
Because I have to. Simple as that.
Its a compulsion. A gift and a curse all rolled into one.
I hate it. Its painful. It hurts to sit at a computer hour after hour, dragging out words and sentences... only to scratch them the next day. I hate having to live in a constant semi concious world, forever imagining scenarios and situations, whilst at the same time having to live in the real world, and snatching ideas from the air as they form and pass, capturing them on scraps of paper, or note books, or ciggie packs to be manipulated and formed into something of my creation.
But that is why I also love writing. The creation. New worlds. New people and stories. I love making people smile and laugh. Making them think and ponder. I like that I am in control.
But writing effects me as a person. I spend hours locked away from my wife and children, pouring my heart out onto a blank white page. I could spend an hour writing nothing, worthless drivel, and for he next few hours, even days, I will feel down, grumpy, moody, forever pondering, contemplating a way out of the mood. And then something will happen... something will occur, a spark of an idea, the structure of a sentance, the purpose of a paragraph, and I will be on top of the world, as giddy as an aunt.... atleast until the next lull comes.
The highs and lows are greater than any drug I have ever known.

So to answer the question again, and this time correctly;
I write, as an addict.

The written word my temptress, my heroin(e) as it were.
Only theres no therapy.
Other than writing....
So its a vicious all encomposing circle... and it will be till it devours me.
I have written for as long as I can remember. And I will write for as long as I can forsee.
Sucessful or not. Thats not for anyone else to judge but me.

I write because I have too. Not for anyone else.
I write, as an addict.

conan doyle

I'm posting here because a colleague of mine suddenly from nowhere told us how much she loved to write. Some of her ideas and stories were fantastic. I won't go in to them now as it's unfair to her but some of her takes on inanimate objects reduce us to hysterics. However she said that she would love to write but at nearly 50 she was past it now and should just keep them locked in her head. We all thought this was a bit sad so I came a cross this thread and thought I'd put it out there. Is there an age limit on writing?

CD.

conan doyle wrote: »

I'm posting here because a colleague of mine suddenly from nowhere told us how much she loved to write. Some of her ideas and stories were fantastic. I won't go in to them now as it's unfair to her but some of her takes on inanimate objects reduce us to hysterics. However she said that she would love to write but at nearly 50 she was past it now and should just keep them locked in her head. We all thought this was a bit sad so I came a cross this thread and thought I'd put it out there. Is there an age limit on writing?

no, there's never an age limit on writing. its something that can be done by a 12 year old or an 80 year old. the only person stopping her, is herself.


Personally, I write because I need to, it's a compulsion. I get a great feeling of satisfaction if I write a large amount in a day. I sleep better at night.
if I don't write, I get nightmares, I find it harder to concentrate and daydream constantly. I also find its a great cure for headaches as it distracts me to a point where i forget about the pain and when I'm done writing it's gone.

davyjose

conan doyle wrote: »

I'm posting here because a colleague of mine suddenly from nowhere told us how much she loved to write. Some of her ideas and stories were fantastic. I won't go in to them now as it's unfair to her but some of her takes on inanimate objects reduce us to hysterics. However she said that she would love to write but at nearly 50 she was past it now and should just keep them locked in her head. We all thought this was a bit sad so I came a cross this thread and thought I'd put it out there. Is there an age limit on writing?

Just No!

http://www.westport-news.com/opinion/article/Tracy-Sugarman-The-world-s-oldest-first-novelist-579274.php

Doris Lessing won the Nobel award for Literature aged 87.

Hemingway won the Nobel award and Pulitzer prize in his 50's for Old Man and the Sea -- a departure from his earlier works (and one of the greatest stories ever told).

Kingsley Amis was 64 when he finally won the Booker prize.

Philip Roth IS 78. And a genius.

iris Murdoch wn her first Booker prize aged 58.

Ok, a lot of these people probably started writing in their teens, but they all didn't. and that's not quite the point of being a writer. If you have a passion, and a talent for it, you've probably been doing the research most of your life. As one of the writer's I most admire on this forum said recently: "we're lucky enough to be pursuing an endeavour in which daydreaming counts as research."

ShaveTheWhales

An original concept.I don't really like tried and true cliches so if i can come up with something that is different, it really motivates me to get started on a story.

cobsie

Very well worth reading - even something for poets and biographers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/mar/26/authors-secrets-writing

jackthelad321

Thanks for that Cobsie, should make very useful reading (i threw mine in scrapbook) anyway had a mental dream the other night, well last night! when dreaming I was drinking heavily, and this was poor form as I have recently all but given up to see for any benifits. The night had descended into madness, and for some reason my bar job (??) was in jeapordy.

The owners took me to one side, explained my behaviour as being untoward. One was kinder, and took me further aside and began: 'I know you have always wanted to write, so we are going to sponser you to become a writer'

Naturally i was taken aback and confused, but grateful. Everything else in this dream was so tragic, this became the one and only saving grace.

Very soon after I woke up, laughing in sleep at the dream. But the effect of it is to motivate me to write again, when i thought i had all but lost it.

Hokuto

To write down desires that I have been denied. Writing these desires in a beautiful notebook everyday as if it's a diary of sorts.
To write something that would give joy and satisfaction to me (even better, other people's).
To keep them as reminders on how complex and wonderful a human imagination could be.

DaaveJoe

Their passion for it and expressing their experience and sharing it with others.