One of my favourite poets, Eugenio Montale, said:
"The poet does not know - often he will never know - whom he really writes for."

I write prose for myself, but I'm not so sure about poetry. How about you?

Adele.

Hi Adele,

Good question. A part of me agrees with Eugenio Montale –

I would answer...
What am I writing for? To entertain.
Who am I writing for? No one.

Dawn,

I am inclined to say that I write for an imagined reader, whom I very much want to affect!

If I think about this, I could come up with more answers, some of the comtradictory, and all of them possibly true.

I write to prove something to myself.

I write for myself for relief, so I can stop nagging at myself.

I write for my mother because she's always encouraged me.

I write for my boyfriend so he can see that I have a potential contribution to the world apart from being someone with lots of education who somehow only takes employment as a typist, on an as needed basis, making me look like a bit of a ne'er-do-well, although he would never say this: I think this is really just my fear that I project onto him.

I could come up with loads more!!!

Ani

I started writing poetry about the same time I caught a brain virus, and I found that the way I wrote, and the things I wrote about, were things I had said to friends and family previously, and in much the same style.

So I guess, in that way, I write to communicate with those in my life and in the world around me, and if someone else gets something - anything - from it, then I am glad to have left them with something. I also write to express myself - even when I am just talking to myself (or a brick wall of steady, unstinting frustration).

Interesting thread...

Dawn, that you write to entertain, seems clear from reading your entertaining novel. That you write for no one seems though a very Zen like answer to me, like the sound of one hand clapping...

Ani, with a good list of people to write for, you'll have no excuse for ever stopping.

Fearless Woz, I hope you've got over your virus - sounds nasty, but a creative catalyst all the same, so perhaps something to be grateful for.

Adele.

Adele

Pretty much everything happens for a reason. Signs to navigate by perhaps, or a star to be inspired by.

Fearless

Fearless, Paolo Coehlo had better watch his back with you around!

Adele.

Coelho? Nah......my literary inspirations (but not influences, as I still write badly) are Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jaroslav Hacek, Venedikt Yerofeev, Mario Vargas Llosa, Joseph Heller...actually, pretty much anything - and don't even get me started on poets...

Fearless

Vargos Llosa lives round the corner from me (when he's in London). If I see him in the street, I'll send him your greetings. Last time I saw him though (ages ago) he gave me a very grumpy look, as if to say, 'Yes, I'm famous. Now p*** off will you.' But I may have imagined that...

Hi guys,

For me, it's also a twofold thing. I write for myself because it's the only way to cope with my imagination, and I write for everyone else because I want to contribute some entertainment. When I was a child, books provided me with a surefire escape from a lot of crap, and now I'd like to provide the same service, if possible.

I think most people on here are very brave in allowing other people to see their work, especially other writers. I know a lot of people who are intensely shy of their stuff and wouldn't dream of letting anyone see it, let alone to crit it!

JB

As i have been writing poetry from the age of 3 it has to be for me.
All the Men in my life get a slice of it as i love them all to bits.
Past year it has been for my son,grandsons.
Most of all my greatest love and my friends,past and present.
Only ever done it for 2 women. One my late mum,the other a dear friend.


<Added>

As a child, i wrote as a child.
As a mother i wrote tales for them.
As a woman i wrote for my lover and still do.
My grand passion.
As a widow, I write for everyone.

Hi JB, I can really relate to reading to escape as a child. It certainly kept me going, knowing that there were other worlds out there, and other ways of being. And yes, it would be great to provide that kind of window for other people.

Alice, I've always thought the best poetry was a distillation of passion, so writing for a lover, whether past, present, future, or simply imagined, seems like a winning approach.

Adele.

I write in memory of my mentor, for my late grandad, who fills me with inspiration every day I wake up living.

Ste
x

I write for my characters. They're clamouring to get out of my head into some form of imortality in a novel.

And I write for myself. May sound selfish but I want to walk into a shop one day and see my books on a shelf.

Dee
x

Ain't nothing wrong with that Dee

JB