Printable View
Forgive me if the question is wrong but I must say I usually need to write. I must. I have to.
I don't have speciel reasons.. I wouldn't like others to read it and to show my feelings to them but of course I am happy if someone says it's worth and he reads it.
I write because I need to.
Maybe it isn't an answer to this question but for me this is the only answer.
But what about you guys and friends?
Why do you write?
Why do you need to write? (If you feel the same way as me.)
I use writing to process, and sometimes as a coping mechanism. When I have emotions that I am not sure how to deal with, or when something is bearing heavily on my mind, I grab a pen and just start writing. I write whatever comes to my mind, and something about putting it down on paper almost always gives me some sort of clarity or new perspective on the matter. I have a great deal of writing that is for no one but me, and no one, except perhaps a few very close friends, will ever see it while I am alive. At times, writing is almost like therapy to me.
Writing can also be an escape. When I sit down to write, especially when writing fiction, I am taken away from the troubles and worries of the world, if only for a few hours, and into the world that I am creating with my writing. For those few hours, I don’t have to worry about the bills that are due, deaths in the family, or whatever drama is going on amongst my friends. There is power in the ability to escape from all of that, and it is an amazing thing. Being able to take myself to a different world with my own rules is wonderful.
Letti, it sounds like you've got the 'writer' gene :) many successful authors explain how they write their works as its 'just what they do', if you've got the compulsion there you will probably end up producing some great stuff in your life.
Ive had a story turning over and over in my head for about 6 months now but i know its not completelt conceived enough for me to put something down on it. I used to do alot of writing as a teenager but havent for years because I'm fearful that I will give up and not complete it, and feel like an idiot.
1. Oh... thank you for the amazingly kind words but I don't think so... but you made my day. :rose:Quote:
Originally Posted by ZoNeSeeK
2. But it's no problem if you can't finish something.. or you give up.. sometimes it happens to all of us. If you can't finish it today maybe you will be able to finsih that piece f work tomorrow or a week later or a year later.
I have plenty of short stories I haven't finished yet and it's possible I never will. I don't know. But it's natural to me and it doesn't bother me at all. Sometimes I feel they call my name.. and then I go. :rose:
So... where is your pen? :couple:
Quote:
Originally Posted by OchrisO
An amazing answer.
Thank you for sharing these bright thoughts with us. :rose:
To stay sane, more or less.
I write for a myriad of reasons. but they all seem to stem back to keeping my head straight.
I write to collect my thoughts and find the crux of the ideas and words floating in my mind; I write to remember certain thoughts, ideas, and emotions times, places, people, or what not; I write to express what I cannot with spoken word; I write to tell the things I coulkdn't possibly say aloud; I write to make myself feel better when I am down and out.
Like I said, I write to stay sane.
There are times when I need to write; there are times when I simply want to write. But most of the time it is because something inside of me yearns to free itself, to quell the need.
"Dissect a trillion sighs away.
Will you get this letter?
Jagged pulp sliced in my veins.
I write to remember.
'Cause I'm a million miles away.
Will you get this letter?
Jagged pulp sliced in my veins.
I write to remember."
I know I am much happier when I'm writing; when I'm not, I feel useless. For me, a lot of it is about message, and I have trouble figuring out what format is best for what I have to say. At this moment, I think I know the way in to the book that's been forming in my mind for several years, but the weird thing is that it's never been a particular plot or even message that has stuck with me through all this time; it's the characters. They won't go away until I find the proper vehicle for them, apparently. They want their story told, and their message revealed to the world; they want what anyone would want: life. Only I can give it to them, as only I know of them. It hasn't been easy telling their story; I've been through several false starts, some of which have gone on for hundreds of pages before fizzling out. But I know now that none of these were right; I tried too hard to force them one way or another, or to make them speak for me, and that wasn't right. I think I know what to do now; I know I'm at least close to the true start that I've been waiting most of the last decade for. I guess I had to get some practise first, as I didn't spend my childhood thinking I'd be a writer; I was a late-bloomer in that sense, not realising what my purpose was until I was 20 or so. It just wasn't the kind of thing that people thought of as realistic where I come from; no one ever suggested it, even though I was what they call a 'gifted' kid. Best idea the teachers and principals ever had for me was lawyer or politician. Never in life! I couldn't have done such dull, soulless work, and no one who was supposed to be guiding me had any better ideas. But when I realised that writing was really the only sane option, it was a true revelation; I got that eureka! feeling, like a piece of my personal puzzle falling into place so I could finally see the real picture it made. Actually doing it, ether on keyboard or by longhand, has always felt right also, like all objects in the universe are in their proper orbits and I sit at the centre of all this rightness. An old boss of mine called it dharma, and that's as good a word as any. Basically, you know you're a writer if questions like the one at the head of this thread sound kind of absurd, like 'Why do you need to breathe?' or 'What's the point in having a heartbeat?' or 'For what purpose do you defecate?' Writing is like that for those of us who, like our beloved Constant Writer, must do it to feel lifelike. It is like that for those of us who have truths to tell the world that are too big and complex for ordinary speech, too sublime for platitudes, too dangerous or difficult to just tell people in common conversation. Before there was writing, there were select people in every society who memorised all of the legends and stories, the history, laws and important ideas of the culture; these people were shamans and priests of a sort, highly respected and admired. I'd say we lived in much healthier societies when things were done this way, whether the stories were written down or not; only when spiritual authority fell out of the hands of the creative people and into the hands of petty bureaucrats determined to maintain one particular orthodoxy (this really got out of hand about 1,800 years ago) did we really start going downhill. In the last few centuries, we've started to correct this error to a degree, but there are still these competing orthodoxies fighting for control of human thoughts and lives. It is the duty of the creators, the writers first and foremost, to keep them from succeeding by telling better stories than theirs, truer stories that hold the people's attention by revealing the reality behind their own fiction, and the lies behind the so-called gospel truths of any given dogma or alleged authority. Am I asking too much of both myself and others who feel compelled to make things up for their livelihood? Maybe. But we've got to aim as high as possible if we're going to even hope to reach the ground. The reactionary Christians here in the US seem to think Harry Potter, for example, is dangerous to the faith they want to drum into the children, that J.K. Rowling's books are a subversive force, teaching children about witchcraft and the occult, turning them away from good Christian values. Well, they're right, and if I could, I'd give every child in America the full set of Harry Potter novels, then a list of where to go once they get too old for those! It is the proper role of creative people to turn the rest of humanity away from rigid orthodoxies that do nothing but keep them from evolving and growing as people. The orthodoxies themselves have always known it; that's why they have struggled so hard over the centuries to control what can and cannot be said or written in public media. For centuries we had to deny it just to survive; writers had to claim they were not subversives, did not represent free thought and speech but rather supported whatever bunch of rigid liars were running the armies at the time. But in the last century or so they've lost control, and now we can openly write whatever we please! Perhaps this is the best time to be a creative person, at least since the birth of Christendom; they can not only no longer kill us, they can't even edit us for content! For me, the duty to subvert is one with the need to write; they are the same thing as far as I am concerned. This may not be true of any of you; the truths in your hearts that will make it into your work may have nothing to do with it. But as long as you write honestly, as long as you tell the truth within you, it will still serve to oppose rigidity, imposed orthodoxy, or any similar evil, as the truth always does, even if it's wrapped up in the pretty lies we call fiction.
Because if I don't, my head will explode. :D
No, seriously.
I can't explain it, but my primary goal in life is to tell stories, and what's more, tell them TO people. When I'm depressed, I can't write, and when I'm not writing, I start to get depressed. It's a nasty little circle, but it's true.
As tough a business as it is, as hard as it is to break in, as big a longshot as it is to be successful at it, the only reason to write is because you can't NOT write.
i write because it's what i like to do. i may not be the best out there, and odds are unless i spend a ton of money on my own to get published, it won't ever happen. but i don't care. i like to tell the stores that i do, and as i am not that competent of an orator, i like the written word. my stories seem to just be the unused fodder of everyday life, the hum-drum kinda bullshit you go through, but with a twist. or it's kinda.... 'world building'... dystopia, and whatnot.
why i write... processing, escapism, and the fact that i like to tell stories-- all wrapped into one weird complex emotion :P
MaraJShakespeare, do what makes you happier! BlakeMP, don't let your head explode! AJ, tell us your stories!
That is, post your works here, friends, - and don't omit to comment on what the others post.
Welcome to Turtleback Lane!
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k2.../0134-bear.gifhttp://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k2.../0134-bear.gifhttp://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k2.../0134-bear.gif
It's really good to peek into your hearts and minds here guys as you are answering the question.
Thank you for all of your answers.
Honestly, most of what I write is for me, but someday, maybe, I'll send out that novel I've been meaning to write. :)
Really, it's not a want, it's a need. I HAVE to write. My version of hell is where I am not given pen, pencil or computer, and left in my own head.
I have to let it out, let my thoughts have their own lives, or I would die. Seriously.
I once read (and I can't remember where, sorry, but I do believe it's true) that a "true writer" will write, even if there is no one else to read it. I fall into this camp.
Write or die. I don't care if it will never be published (although, really, wouldn't it be AWESOME if you could earn a living doing what you MUST do to survive?) but I write for my own amusement. Most of it is probably garbage, but it's MY garbage, so I love it in its own way. :D
I need to write for one reason:
My mind is so crammed with so many ideas and plans, I need a way to vent[olin]. Songs, artwork, writings--all are ways to relieve this odd psychic stress.
I have to write because it's what makes me happy.
I used to have to write because I thought it was my calling, my Ka, if you will. Life, love and family made me realize I am living my destiny everyday so now I just write here. :D
I usually only write when my moods are at or near an extreme...sometimes its a vent...sometimes the vent isn't enough.
But many times, as I write I find answers there on the page (usually by reading between the lines) about myself or my situation.
:rose:Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon
bump
Writing stops me over thinking the world, it helps me to clear my head and i guess enjoy life that bit more. May sound stupid, but it really has helped with my depression.
by a coincidence (I mean, you post very rarely!), I am reading Everyone Loves CLowns right now
Yeah i know i should post more, i guess it's with the anxiety you know, the fear of failing. I was pretty bad the last 6 months of 2013 but i'm sure i'm thinking clearer and more positive now. & i'm trying to make the effort to do more, and not just hide away as a hermit.
much goodmind, and hope you'll come talk to me some time, in the Castle or elsewhere
I'll be sure to give it a go! & thanks
I started writing stories and poems at age 8 ... because there was no other outlet available to express what I needed to express.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letti
What was that? you might ask... well:
1. Any emotion: anger, fear, happiness, love, hate, carefree, down, sad, silly, you name it, was NOT ALLOWED.
2. Any idea: contribution to the current discussion, something that might be a solution to a problem, any idea my parents had not thought of, was NOT ALLOWED.
3. Questions: Of any sort. Like, did what I just saw happen for real? was not allowed.
For me I HAD to write in order to make sense of my universe. Furthermore, having been raised in such an insanely claustrophobic way, I needed ESCAPE.
Eventually, after having scared my mother apparently with making the piano teacher amazed at my natural talent, and my mother tossed the piano teacher, I turned to guitar.
I'd already been through violin, worked from beginner to intermediate UNTIL....I was forced to learn to read music rather than play by ear. I dropped that for guitar since the only
"teaching" available for that was very beginning. Taught myself that. Once I had that down, the poetry turned to lyrics and I must have written over 100 songs in the first 3 months.
I also bloodied my stupid fingers on dollar slicks!!!!
Eventually, in high school, after writing two children's books for a Child Lit. class, I began writing a novel.
That novel .. no, those characters and their story has never left me. It clings to me like a child never weaned and afraid to walk on the ground.
The problem for me is that I am so critical of my own writing I choke it before it gets far.
So I have stuck with Poetry. It's short and I can't get too critical about it. Not as bad as with a novel anyway.
I'm wondering if there is a specific time when the poetry contests happen so that I can contribute if I have something worth contributing.
Could someone tell me, please? Thank you.
gottaluvoy, I definitely understand how difficult it is to write a novel. Some of the key ideas of my novel have been with me since high school, too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tito_Villa
This echoes so much of how I feel and have felt in general. I suffer anxiety a lot, and I understand that fear of failing preventing you from doing the things you know you want to do all to often. (My coping mechanism, if I'm really afraid of doing something because I'm sure I'll fuck it up, is to think to myself, "Prove it". Seriously, the whole reason I got back into college was being so sure that if I put real effort into something, even something I enjoyed, I'd just fuck it up again, so it was a wonderful feeling when it turned out that my greatest (and I mean truly greatest) failure was actually not failing. I hope things are going much better for you now mate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tito_Villa
Myself, while I used to write for similar reasons to Tito as a way of coping with things better (and I'm not ashamed to admit that with the current story I'm writing, I've put a lot of myself into it), now it's for simply wanting to read a story I'm interested in that I haven't been able to find, especially in the time travel genre, which as far as original works are concerned, I've been very disappointed with over the past decade. (Which makes me rather desperate to see Twelve Monkeys, as I've heard it's an excellent example of the time travel genre.) I've been writing it far too slowly, I must admit, but ever since my best friend gave me Slaughterhouse 5 to read as a birthday present (a brilliant little novel that I've been trying to read and digest as slowly as possible), I've finally given myself a set date to just get that first draft out of the way by early November, so by the time I go through it and tidy it up, I can give her the first draft as a birthday present. Whether that's realistic or not, I don't know, but I've written a great deal more recently, at least, so it has helped. (Plus, no way is that bitch gonna outdo me on birthday present awesomeness!)
For non-fiction stuff like blogs and analysis, it's because it gives me a chance to express the things I want to express. The Internet truly is a wonderful thing, and while I still have issues talking to people because of anxiety (although it's certainly not as bad now as it once was, I'll tell ya that much), I can blog on life, work or (far more likely) geeky shit to my heart's content. And that truly is fantastic.
I write for all kinds of reasons.
I write to capture moments in time. Life moves so fast, and if I fail to at least write some of it down, I feel like the story of my life may be lost some day. So, I guess my non-fiction writing is for sentimental reasons.
I write to express emotion. This usually comes out as poetry. Sometimes the world can be so beautiful or ugly, sometimes my soul can feel so full or so empty, that I can only sum it up with jumbles of words that pour out too quickly to form anything other than a poem.
Lastly, I write because I feel like I have all these tiny stories/ideas that pop up out of nowhere and leave me with a feeling of needing to give breath to that idea. They usually grow quickly, start to breathe, really coming to life...then collect dust in the corner of my mind and laptop. This is my saddest form of writing. Because these people I've created will come to mind at times, and I feel such a sense of helplessness for not being able to do more with them. [Sounds psycho, but I know that fellow writers can understand that].
Those who've read my writing will surely tell you I don't need to write. :P
I write because I am a paradox
I beat up nerds and jocks
I am small and a bully
Mama did not suckle me fully
I came out smaller then rest
Moving quickly from her breast.
My moves avoiding the cudgel of all.
I smiled as I swung the cord and used the placenta as a maul!
I write to create people. I write to both invert and subvert society. I write to shatter perspective. I write my own experiences and apply them to characters as both a method of memoir writing and a method of self-reflection. I write as a platform for what is probably my greatest of passions, understanding human beings. Most of all, I write in hopes of creating empathy where none existed before. This is unpolished by one of my personal favourite paragraphs I've written.
Lloyd ambles to his paltry corner of the unit consisting of only three wrinkled cardboard boxes squeezed between a simple brown couch and a worn and scratched coffee table: Lloyd was married for nine years and together with his wife for thirteen years and this is all he has to show for it. The tops of the boxes are still garnished with the dust from his old apartment and the apartment before that and touching the top of his trinity of memorabilia turns his fingertip black. He tosses the top box on the couch and plunks beside it. Dust combusts as he pries the folded top open and he waves it away from his face. Inside the box there is a baseball darkened with scuff marks with loose red stitching, the counterpart to his bloodied bat. Seeing that baseball was the single halcyon ingredient in Lloyd’s relationship with his father Lloyd forced the game on Zachary who, much like Lloyd himself, wasn’t a very athletic kid but he was unequipped to bond with his son otherwise; it was only when hitting Zachary ground balls or working to build up his swing that Lloyd could believe this was the only way he was like his father but he knows now, years removed from those lessons, that his footprints are superimposed on his father’s and that makes him terrified to turn around and find little footprints within his. He drops the baseball on the couch and it rolls off, bounces on the floor and is claimed by Andy’s possessions. He lights a cigarette and pulls out the next object, a glittery, purple-pink set of butterfly wings his wife had made for Nikki’s Halloween costume when she was four and he remembers her uncanny radiance in it as if that was the moment her beauty broke free of its chrysalis. He runs his fingers along the rough contours of the pattern embroidered in the wings and he chokes on the pain of losing his daughter, whose eyes alone now prevent him from filtering his fury and self-pity on women or subjecting them to his shameful advances: for some time he’s inflicted himself with celibacy in hopes to starve that part of him. Lloyd isn’t sure if he loved Zachary because he was too much like himself but Nikki he loved, Nikki he placed on a monolithic pedestal that buries mountains in its shadow, Nikki he saved from himself because he knew the purity and innocence she exuded was temporary because whether he wanted to or not he would rip those qualities right out of her, so, like every other woman he’s powerless not to subjugate, he leaves his beloved daughter alone. The remaining trinkets in the box elicit such little strife he opens the next one to drink suffering if he can’t drink whiskey.
I am a recreational writer.
I have a career as a man of science.
I write 'cuz it's fun.
When I write about the past I use historical facts.
When I write about the present, it is usually romance, suspense & spirituality.
When I write about the future, well... I'm freer than a bird. My imagination sky rockets to realms, realities, time travel, consciousness projecting and super luminal journeys.
I have a few short stories that hopefully will be published in my university paper.
Cheers
Greg M.
Writing poetry is my favorite writing. I'm ok with short stories but I am absolutely clueless as to how one can write a novel.
You tie up a bunch of short ones and make like 50 pages... from there it just comes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon
Don't write in advance, as to some future event, the happening of which is uncertain. Make up as you go along... see what works for you and your process.
Good Luck, Greg :)
Writing is my therapy. It helps me to organize my thoughts and to deal with things I'm going through.
Yeah but it's SOOOOOO hard to make 100,000 words rhyme!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Eternal UnityYou tie up a bunch of short ones and make like 50 pages... from there it just comes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon
Don't write in advance, as to some future event, the happening of which is uncertain. Make up as you go along... see what works for you and your process.
Good Luck, Greg :)
The primary reason for writing anything is to communicate with others, to stimulate interest or action from the reader. As a person who writes regularly on Quora, I should be writing something original to this question. Students talk about their writing lives · I like to write because it is a way to express my ideas. · I love to write, just for myself, as a way to release stress http://cuddlebite.com.