# Why do you write?



## thedarknessrising (Sep 14, 2012)

I started writing after reading Christopher Paolini's _Inheritance Cycle_. I wrote him a letter, praising the series, and asking for advice on writing, and he wrote back. Without that letter, or those books, I probably wouldn't be as serious of a writer as I am now.


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## Jabrosky (Sep 14, 2012)

I've always had a creative impulse. Whenever a really cool idea bites me, usually in the form of a mental image, I want to put it onto paper or a computer file. Writing and drawing have been my main outlets for my creativity throughout my life.


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## Motley (Sep 14, 2012)

I get a thrill from experiencing the stories that pop into my head. I enjoy the process of sitting down and typing them out and playing with language to make it effective.

I also love it when people tell me I'm good and they want to read more.


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## CupofJoe (Sep 14, 2012)

thedarknessrising said:


> I started writing after reading Christopher Paolini's _Inheritance Cycle_. I wrote him a letter, praising the series, and asking for advice on writing, and he wrote back. Without that letter, or those books, I probably wouldn't be as serious of a writer as I am now.


Getting a letter back from an author is great. I got David Gemmel to sign a really battered copy of _Legend_ for me at a signing for a new book.
I write because I get images stuck in my head. I write them down until I can thread them together to form a story. Sometimes it works and sometimes I have a daliesque mishmash that would make Hunter S Thompson proud. Then I start again...


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## Penpilot (Sep 14, 2012)

I like asking what if? It's something I've been doing since forever. Since nobody else is going to answer my what if question, I figure I'd do it myself because I really like knowing.


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## SlimShady (Sep 14, 2012)

I write, because I feel that my stories need to be shared with the world.  I believe that other people would enjoy them and that it is my destiny.  I want to leave behind something for people too look at when I'm gone.


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## MariMidnight (Sep 30, 2012)

I have panic disorder with agoraphobia, am also depressive and have ADD.  It's a fun time up in my head! LOL I write because when I don't write, the depression gets worse. Also, you don't want me to get bored _and_ restless; that's when things around me tend to go BOOM! :bounce: Too, writing allows me to get some of the stuff out of my head out of my head -- the quieter it is up there, the better it is for me; too much noise makes me insane and prone to insomnia.


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## Feo Takahari (Sep 30, 2012)

I entered an erotic fiction contest on impulse, and though the contest was cancelled, I posted the story on Literotica. It received an Editor's Choice award, and a lot of people requested that I write more. I'm not used to getting that level of adulation for anything, and I wanted to get it again.

Yeah, that's probably the most selfish reason for writing anyone could possibly have, but it's mine.


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## Jess A (Oct 1, 2012)

Feo Takahari said:


> Yeah, that's probably the most selfish reason for writing anyone could possibly have, but it's mine.



At least you're honest. I love having a byline in the newspaper. I keep all my articles and my first is still pinned up on my pinup board.

--

Why do I write? Well, I'm moving into journalism as a career - an eclectic one, as I have very wide interests. I grew up playing pretend and building 'castles' outside and laying siege to my friends' 'castles'. I created lots of characters and worlds with my friends. I love to learn about the world. History, nature, culture. It all goes into my writing. Many years ago, I corresponded regularly with Robin Hobb, and she gave me a lot of good advice and encouragement. I hope to publish a novel and I will always treasure imagination and I will always be a writer. I like to share, too, and writing can enable that.


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## SilentWatcher (Oct 5, 2012)

I write because it's what I like to do. I like coming up with ideas, creating characters and worlds, devising a plot, and then putting them all together. It's an urge I had a long time before I started, and when I did start, I wrote whenever I could. Of course I also hope to one day publish some of my work...but I'll see how that goes.


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## MariMidnight (Oct 5, 2012)

Oh my gods, yes. I can worldbuild for days, weeks!


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## SilentWatcher (Oct 5, 2012)

I've often spent whole days just worldbuilding. Really is one of the fun bits of writing, for me.


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## julidrevezzo (Oct 6, 2012)

I write because, well... I've always made up stories and it seemed the best way to keep track of them, to write them down. Then I discovered Moorcock in high school, and the bug really bit. I've been writing and working on writing, ever since.


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## Sheriff Woody (Oct 8, 2012)

I write because I like making stuff up. 

And also because I get ideas about people, places, and things, and I want to see them come to life. What good is an idea if it remains an idea?


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## Weaver (Oct 11, 2012)

I write because I have to.  I write because I have all these stories and people in my head that have to come out somehow, and even as a child I realized that most people I encountered face-to-face didn't want to hear about them... So I started writing them down instead.


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## Guru Coyote (Oct 12, 2012)

At this point in the thread, what I can say will mostly be "me too". Like many of you, I have told stories in my head ever since I could, and maybe even before that. 
The outlet for those mental images has been drawing/painting, digital art, music, software and writing. Usually when I take up some new form of expression, I reach a relatively high level in a short time, and often without too much "hard work". That might simply be because I always do things in my head - without even noticing - before I actually create anything tangible. One might call it a gestation period of ideas.

And on top of the inside-storytelling, I think I have a native desire to open people's minds and eyes. I've always been the one who could see all sides of an argument, and also see those sides no one else had considered before. 
I love putting seemingly unrelated things together and see what comes out. There is a fascination with Trickster Mind for me - thus the user name. People who get to know me often comment I should have taken up a career as a teacher... but my father was a teacher, and that cured me for good 

I guess the core reason for writing for me is the same as for all creative endeavors I undertake: I see something, get really interested in how it works and how it is made, and see how it could be made better, more to my liking. And thus I set out to make it happen.


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## icebladeaskante (Oct 12, 2012)

I guess I write because it brings me pleasure. Fantasy and books have always been a form of escape for me, so when I hit senior school and got introduced to the idea of writing my own world I fell into it and spent hours just writing, invariably taking somebody else's story and writing my friends and myself in and then expanding and soon it changed into something else. Thankfully I still have a problem finishing stories (I start getting other images and stories and tales and life interrupts) so those stories never got anywhere, but as I grew I knew I wanted something that's mine. So I'm building up one story that is mine and hoping to actually finish it even if it takes another couple of years. I write because if I don't I end up with images and tales and odds and ends, that clutter up my brain breaking concentration in other areas in my life. I don't know if I would push for publication but I guess it would be nice if my stories let some other person have the escape I did.


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