Struggling Writers discussion

Writers, why do you write?

I write because I feel a very strong need to write and when I don't I get antsy

I write because all of these stories in my head are bursting to get out

I write for entirely selfish reasons — me. Or, to be more precise, I write stories I want to read.

The first book I wrote out of conviction I felt there was a need for such a book. The second I wrote because I thought the market was for smutty books (I was wrong) the third I wrote because I enjoyed writing and the lastest shortly to be published I wrote a follow on from the third. I think the first is still my best

I write because i want to record those thoughts, ideas and visions that apear in my head and my mind on paper for others to 'see'. I write because i feel that one's imagination can be brought to life in an explosion of color and glorious brilliance. I write to express myself. To share an insight with others of my personal visions and to provoke thoughts and interpretations by others. I write to share my passions with the world, recorded down for re-living those moments.

Same as everyone. I write because I feel compelled to jot down the ideas in my head. Because most of the time those ideas transverse into major plots and sequels. I also know that i love to write because im happy when i scribble a few sentences or i just love the energy i derive from abstract contemplation. And i love knowing that i am better than some of my classmates. Some are still boarded by colloquial grammar while im a maestro on the typewriter(or computer, haha) picking away at seams of ideas, neverending.


When you're a writer you can't turn back:D

It's a multifaceted answer actually. When I got published in the University paper I was writing in response to someone else's ideals and how they aren't shared with everyone who read them. When I got published for my work on self care as a necessary element in developing into a more self actualized being it was out of necessity of me developing in my field. When I write poetry (http://enigmatic-me.hubpages.com) it is all about needing an outlet to feelings I have bottled up and needing somewhere to put them. In my writing stories its about sharing my insights on the human psyche. But, if you look at it all, its about me wanting to share my understanding of the world so that someone else can learn from it, do different or better than I have done to prevent someone from falling in the same ditches I have, and for me to be understood on some level on a bigger sphere than just within my close knit friends. We are more than that...we should aspire to be more than the leader in your perceived circle of influence. What I write may touch you, may inspire you, may humble you...but...it will better you for having read it...or so I hope.

Because I like to dream my way out of my real life.

I have to write. Or I would go crazy. I think of things that get me wondering, "What could happen next?" So I write it down. I have ideas that I don't want to forget. So I write them down. If I could not tell stories, my head would burst open, I am quite sure.

I do feel as if I am going to burst if I don't write. If I didn't have to suppress: because of time limits, others' feelings, racing thoughts, social anxiety, sweetness on my part or lack of proper wording; pehaps I could organize the thoughts in a way that they can express the things I feel and sense. I would then feel I'd expressed myself. Then maybe philosophical whys, anecdotes, lessons on how to treat others and clever stanzas wouldn't plague all my thoughts. For now, inspiration, observation, interaction and evolution cause me to write. I want more, and I want better, and I want to reach others who feel the same!

Ever since I was little, I always used to make up stories in my head, play games with myself, and such. I'd run around my backyard all on my own (before my siblings were born, and sometimes even after!) and I'd just talk to myself and go on and on, telling a story about a princess in a forest or a wild girl in a jungle, etc. I write to entertain. Myself more than others.

I can relate to a lot of these.

For me, writing is therapeutic. It helps me escape. It helps me remember. It helps me forget. It helps me entertain. Sometimes I simply like seeing traces of who I am or who I once was on a piece of paper or computer screen.

Anyway, if you're interested in reading some of my work, please feel free to check out my blog at generationend.com.

If I didn't write I think my head would propably explode with all the ideas and characters mulling around inside there!

I can understand that Jessica, I used to make up stories too, and even after my sister was born I preferred being with my imaginary friends to her, she was, and still is, a proverbial pain in the rear!

I write because if not I would be in the looney bin, seriously, too many voices in my head that won't shut up until they are on paper (screen).

Eva wrote: "I write because if not I would be in the looney bin, seriously, too many voices in my head that won't shut up until they are on paper (screen)."

Lol, what a pair we are, I had withdrawl symptons last week, all I managed to do was download my emails! By the time Hugo went to bed we needed a large glass of wine and time out!

I think that the reason to write is probably as varied as the people who feel the need to do it.
My original impetus to write was to give someone I loved a story to read that I thought they would like. Little did I know that others would get their hands on it and push me to publish.
After that first push to write it took on more of a life of it's own and the characters would not leave me alone, reguardless of my day job or need for sleep.
Now it has become a race to see if I can put a period on the series before the main characters find out I'm done.... But then again this series has already spawned a spin off that has started to bug me to get more on paper than just an outline.
So I just sit, at my computer typing, sipping my Scotch and losing sleep.
I can only hope that my characters start making me a living before my boss fires me for sleeping at my desk.
Kay.

Well I have had some tough moments in my life but never feel like I should burden others with my worries and have a shoulder to cry on. My chaplain noticed this and decided to help. I wouldn't confine within her so she said the best thing to do was to write my problems to get it of my chest. I was worried someone would find these though so I decided to write these in a creative format so the main character felt my feeling and everything. I realised I absolutely loved writing and It made me feel better. So I kept writing but when I showed people things they would say it wasn't any good. I have started to believe this myself. So now I am a member of about 10 writing groups trying to get training to help. My mum is against spending money though she says that if I had a talent she would but I don't so I keep trying,

Olivia wrote: "Well I have had some tough moments in my life but never feel like I should burden others with my worries and have a shoulder to cry on. My chaplain noticed this and decided to help. I wouldn't conf..."

Never bottle your feelings up Olivia, there is always someone around on chat willing to listen to your problems and give advice. Once a mother, always a mother, I have children, two of which are grown up now, with children of their own. And then there's Sophie, she's 11, and has just started senior school. So I am well qualified to listen. A problem shared, is a problem halved.

Why not join Sharon Atkinson's writing class, she's another GR member who pops into chat from time to time, and who runs a class in Essex, you can join online too, and there are other youngsters so you wouldn't be surrounded by 'oldies'!

Initially because I found it therapeutic. I still do, but have now branched out into writing because I became interested in a subject (usually it started out as a school project) and realised I had enough material to write a book. But also because writing allows me to explore parts of myself that I didn't know existed.

I have been going through...a tough time. I feel unimportant, unwanted, and useless. At first, I wrote because it was fun. I still think it's fun, but the main reason why I write now is that it makes me feel just the opposite of how I feel ^^. Writing puts me into a made up life, a better life, where even if things get tough, in the end everything works out. Writing is my way of expressing my talents, my knowledge, and well, myself. It makes me feel like I am not alone in my lonely world because I have my stories. Books inspire me, and one day, I want to inspire other people and let them take comfort in my books. That's why I write.

Sarah wrote: "Olivia wrote: "Well I have had some tough moments in my life but never feel like I should burden others with my worries and have a shoulder to cry on. My chaplain noticed this and decided to help. ..."

Thanks a lot Sarah. That helps a lot anyway I was wondering about this. Sharon Atkinson's writing class what is it, and what do I do to look into it.

Olivia wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Olivia wrote: "Well I have had some tough moments in my life but never feel like I should burden others with my worries and have a shoulder to cry on. My chaplain noticed this and dec..."

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...

Follow the above link direct to The World of Writers Write, and see for yourself Olivia, unless of course you live in Essex or nearby and can attend the meetings. Sharon's email is writingsharon@gmail.com.

And chin up, Olivia, growing up gets easier.

I write to escape reality. It takes me away from the hustle and bustle of the day and takes me to a place where I can be whom I choose. ;o)

I can relate. Reality can be a bore.

Exactly. I'm as fictional as my character, never aging with ideas and always hurdling obstacles. Why throw away that life:)?>

I write because I can't not :) I write to create worlds to play in, stretch my imagination to its breaking point, then reset and start anew. I write to express myself the most direct way I can, without worrying about what others think. I write to learn new things about myself and the world around me. I write to surprise myself. And I write simply because I love to!

Very valid points, Sean! Although I must say I still need to work on the whole, "not worrying about what others think" thing.

Today, I am writing because my science teacher gave us a project, and tomorrow I'll be writing because my English teacher gave us a project, but I also write because I love it! :)

For all the reasons above, but most of all just because I love it!

I think that the general feeling between fellow writers, is that we write because we love it. It is enjoyable and a passion.

I started when I was bored. NO - I've always loved writing - ever since I learned how.

I officially started writing one day when I watched a documentary about Pompeii. I thought, "aw, poor people. You all died. Was that necessary, Mt. Vesuvius?" And I started writing about a character (her name is Antonia), and how she was saved from death from a goddess. I wrote all these different versions of what could happen with her - and I finally wrote this whole novel about how she has to save the world from Apophis (the snake of chaos in Egyptian mythology).

And I write cheesy fan-fiction with characters that I come across, (for example, I wrote one where Tosca wakes up after she committed suicide in a hospital in New York City in current time, and she says something like "CAVARADOSSI!" and everyone thinks she's insane)...

I published one of those - using a real guy and Antonia

See, this is what happens when I get bored.

I really enjoyed writing that. Thank you for this :D

I write as a hobby. I'll never make a living with it and I'm fine with that. I want to do other things for a career. I write because I like to and that leaves me free to only write what I like.

I write because ideas keep screaming at me in my head to write them down, so their stories can finally be known by others.

I think writing makes me happy.I love to express what m thinking in my mind,so why not write about it

I don't know why I started but I write because I love doing it and it feels natural to me. Plus I could never stop daydreaming at school and still can't stop daydreaming and coming up with stories in my head so I figure I should make use of it.
Two of my nonfiction's that I am writing I am doing so because I feel they are something that needs to be written.

Because creating stories in my head was fun, but at some point I thought sharing them might be nice. :P Besides, when they are not written, they end up forgotten.

1. I don't have a choice.
2. To change the world.
3. Books gave me happiness all my life. I'm trying to give some back.
4. When we create, we are gods.

I write because I feel like the characters need their story to be told. I have so many incredible ideas and amazing characters that I am in love with. I just want other people to be able to read the people I have in my head. I can also put some very important views on life in my writing and it is just an outlet for how I feel and what I feel needs to be emphasized.

I write because it's the only way to get the characters to quit bugging me to tell their stories.

I write because it is natural for me to do so. I have been writing songs, stories and poems since I was twelve. If I did not write, I would not be me. I love literature. Reading poetry and novels and writing my own prose and verses, gives me another dimension to dwell in and explore. Why do writers write, sculptors sculpt, painters paint, composers compose? It is because they must. It is what comes natural to them. They would not have it any other way.

I am a creative person, and I actually start to get depressed if I am not creating something. For most of my life, I got satisfaction writing computer programs. I then started supplementing that with photography and short videos. For grins, I wrote a movie script. The script did very well, and it was the most satisfying creative thing I had done (short of having children). Now I am writing novels, which I feel give me even more creative freedom than movie scripts.

For me it is a case of "write or fall into a black mood".

As a struggling writer sales-wise, I've tried to give up writing on at least 3 occasions, but each time lying in bed a week after, a month after, half a year after, and I'm being kept awake by these germs of ideas in my mind that are working away and forming into book ideas even without my active attention to them. They won't leave me alone and they refuse to let me quit for a quiet life. So I guess that's partly why I write. It's not a great deal, the rewards aren't particularly worthwhile. All I can aspire to is to do justice to each piece of writing and hope that long after I've passed from this earth, my words at least persist among the pool of human words.

Honestly, I write because my characters make me.

I think them up and give them life, usually by way of a simple sketch or an outline of their story. If I feel enough of a connection to the character, I have to write about them. There's no "is the story good" or "do I have enough time to work on this". If I feel close to the character, I need to write about them.

Obviously this causes a lot of trouble for me. Take right now for instance; I'm writing several different stories at the same time AND I'm trying to focus on my really hard history class in school AND I'm trying to find a job AND I'm trying to get scholarship money for college.

I'm always super busy and way too stressed out. But yeah, that's why I write. For my characters.

Dean wrote: "I can relate to a lot of these.

For me, writing is therapeutic. It helps me escape. It helps me remember. It helps me forget. It helps me entertain. Sometimes I simply like seeing traces of who I ..."

I really like the word 'escape'. It helps me escape that's what writing does to me,escape from reality. It creates a magic surrounding, traces of 'was' with it's connection with 'am'..

Areeb wrote: "Dean wrote: "I can relate to a lot of these.

For me, writing is therapeutic. It helps me escape. It helps me remember. It helps me forget. It helps me entertain. Sometimes I simply like seeing tra..."

Why do writers feel the need to escape reality? I like writing that addresses that need and investigates what it is about reality that demands fleeing from it...

Marc wrote: "Why do writers feel the need to escape reality? I like writing that addresses that need and investigates what it is about reality that demands fleeing from it... "

What I think about this 'escape' is: Writers are the purest souls on Earth. You can see a writers soul in his writings, in his words like watching yourself in a mirror. They always look for ideal situations, perfections, 'the world of forms' as Plato said. In reality writers are unable to see those perfections which let them enter into the world of imagination, the world as he wants it to be. This 'escape' is the real essence of a writer's life..

Areeb wrote: "Marc wrote: "Why do writers feel the need to escape reality? I like writing that addresses that need and investigates what it is about reality that demands fleeing from it... "

What I think about ..."

what about writers who write about very ugly things in our world?

Marc wrote: "Areeb wrote: "Marc wrote: "Why do writers feel the need to escape reality? I like writing that addresses that need and investigates what it is about reality that demands fleeing from it... "

What ..."

I don't know what do you really mean by ugly things? The things that shouldn't happen and are happening?
The things that we label ugly in their natural appearance?

Areeb wrote: "Marc wrote: "Areeb wrote: "Marc wrote: "Why do writers feel the need to escape reality? I like writing that addresses that need and investigates what it is about reality that demands fleeing from i..."

Murders and worse. Some writers forge a poetics of ruin and decay.

Yeah, Death in itself is another real huge escape from reality. Isn't it? and then it has more dimensions: Murders, Suicides, Biological decay and so on. I don't feel ugly writing about death. In fact it is one of the most engaging and interesting topic to write about..