Hello everyone,
I am a newcomer to this site and would like your help if possible. I am currently studying for a MA Creative Writing and for my final project I have decided to ask as many writers as possible the following question;

Why do you write?

If you could answer this question for me as part of my research it would be greatfully appreciated.

You can be published or unpublished, add information about yourself if you wish, or just give me a quick one line answer, it's up to you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and again if you posted me an answer.

Regards
AWriter

Hello, AW, and welcome. I hope you’ll stick around and let us know how you get on with the course.

Why do I write? Because I can’t not write. It’s that simple. I could say lots of stuff about wanting to convey a message, wanting to entertain people, but basically it’s simple compulsion.

Dee

Same here. If someone could tell me for certain that I'd never get published or make a bean, I'd still write, the same way others play guitar, listen to music, watch movies or play sport - it's what I do for me.

Hello, LW; very difficult to say, but it is often therapeutic, always gratifying, and yes.... as Dee, says I can't not do it.

joanie

I write because when I do, I feel as if I've come home. In retrospect, I can see that it unites all the elements of my life and personality that don't fit very well together in any other context. But at the time I just feel right.

But now, I also write because I'm under contract. That's a very, very different thing.

Emma

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And - sorry - welcome to WW!

Same with me - you're not getting much of a cross section of answers here

I write because I have to. Like an itch that won't go away but you have to keep scratching. Stories fly about in my head all the time and if I can't get them out I feel like I will explode. I have so many bits of paper with lines and characters and situations that I could keep going forever but more come in to fill the space.

I guess it's like some sort of weird illness, I've had it as long as I can remember and it drives me crazy but I wouldn't know what to do if I was cured!

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Oh and welcome - you'll love it here !

I started writing because, like Eve, my head was full of stories that I wanted out and into a permanent form. I wanted to see books in shops with my name on the cover, I wanted to know that people were getting enjoyment and entertainment out of what I’d written… and I still want that. I haven’t achieved it yet, but I still want it. However, if someone told me now that my work would never ever be published, I would still write. To echo what Colin said, I write for me. Because it gives me so much pleasure and a great sense of achievement. I actually enjoy reading my own writing – damn it, if I didn’t, how could I expect anyone else to?

Dee

I write cos proper jobs make me ill.

Have you checked out Louise Dought's Novel In A Year website, on the Daily Telegraph? She also set a similar question in the early part of 2006: Why Be A Novelist - second Message Board from bottom. You can find a whole range of answers on there, a lot of them on 'Why do I write?':

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?menuId=115&menuItemId=-1&view=DISCUSSION_TOPICS&grid=T8&targetRule=



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My own answer?
I can't not write.

Because I have all these ideas whirrling round in my head and just have to get them down into a story.

Because it gives me pleasure to formulate those words into a complete story, which has a beginning, middle and end, and acuallly makes sense.

Because I get a thrill and sense of pride when I see something I've written, in published form.

Because I just have to.

Katerina

Welcome to WW, AWriter.

Ever since I can remember, writing is the thing I've loved to do most of all. It's the only thing that I feel I'm any good at, so it's writing that's kept me going whenever I've felt utterly hopeless about life and how to fit into life.

I write because I feel I will explode unless I do. Wearing huge holes in my carpet from pacing up and down while the creative urge consumes me is not ergonomically friendly. In these days of laptops, the fingers are the key to my soul.

I think there are several reasons why I'm drawn to writing fiction:

I love beautiful prose, and get pleasure from reading it, so I love to try to create it myself. I get such pleasure from its beauty.

Writing fiction feels like an attempt by me to make sense of the world around me, to create something which makes sense in a world that is beyond my control. If I manage to encapsulate an emotion or set of feelings into a fictional construct I find it immensely therapeutic, and I hope that readers might feel the same pleasure from that encapsulation.

Thirdly, it's always been my only real talent so I want to make the most of it.

Deb

Hiya,

I started writing because I had all these words and sentences to tell. Also, somehow, writing has always been something that I felt I had to do. Not really an answer I guess, but it is the reason.

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Sorry, meant to add a bit about myself.

Sofar, in fiction unpublised. Have some experience in non-fiction, which is a completely different kind of writing, as a lot of you might know.
Am currently working on my first fiction novel.

V

Welcome, V.

Nik.