The Will To Continue.

[FatCat]

I have reached a point in my life that want and need have made themselves clear. I want to write, even more I want to believe that people want to read what I write. But economics and the desire for the legal tender press forth. There are times where I feel absurdely childish to pursue this, to try so hard to write fragments of a whole. So why continue? Before the responses of 'because you want to' flood in, what you want and what you need to do rarely collide. I need inspiration, why is it you want to write, and more importantly, what do you want to say?

 

[Caged Maiden]

I want to write because I've invested too much time in this to quit now. I've become a writer. I see the world as a writer. Before I was a real writer in my mind, as in, before I'd fully embraced the lifestyle of translating my real feelings and thoughts and the things I observe and experience into words to share with others, I lived for the thrill of just living. Now, when I do something awesome, I translate it to a character, i work up ways to include it into my world. I am a writer, in my heart and soul. What I write might not be worth much to some folks, but it's valuable to me. And I have to believe it has value to other folks, if only a few.

If I can inspire one person in this world to live more fully, to imagine "what if" with me for an afternoon, or to become one of my fans for the long haul, then I have a reason to be who I am. And to write for other people who love life, too. I'll never be the best, I'll never be a best-seller, hell, I may not even catch an agent's eye, in the grand scheme of things, but I love what I choose to do with my time. The friends I've met on this journey are priceless to me, and the experiences we've shared will last forever in my mind and heart. I'm inspired to write because I love people, with all their imperfections and flaws, and wish to share this world with them. When I share a story, a character, a situation, an adventure, on paper and in words with other people who "feel" what I do, I feel connected deeper in my soul to a world that I cannot change but must reside in. And I feel like one of the best ways to share ideas and experiences, is with stories.

So I suppose that's my inspiration. My WHY. That's why I write, and I suppose the reason I pick such raw subject matter when I do. I want people to know they're okay, whomever they are. I try to write characters who reflect the truth, and it's through the hard truths that I think all people are freer to love and live, and while we all want to be entertained by a gripping tale, don't we all also look for commonalities, parallels to the things we're going through, or have gone through? Sometimes a good story can teach you about yourself. A good story is something that stays with you, and I hope I write the kinds of characters that will stick with readers like some of my favorite characters have stuck with me.

 

[FatCat]

Well-said and well-thought, maiden. I hope for your success. Old-school cool and all, you have a voice. I wouldn't say this for most here, but you have a voice worth yelling for. Love ya.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

At this point in my life, the need to write has overtaken the wanting. If I'm not working on something, I feel like a criminal, as if I'm cheating or letting myself down in some fashion.

I suppose, at some level, the habit I once worked to create has taken root. Walking away from writing is not an option. That's why I'm certain of future success. The only question is when.

I don't say this to be harsh, or condescending, or depressing, but there are loads of people that want to write. Very few actually do write. Fewer still persevere to the success they envision. I suppose the question is where do you fall?

There's no shame in any choice, and success should be defined on your own terms, but if writing doesn't make you happy in some way...if you don't feel drawn to writing, why bother? There are plenty of other endeavors that may.

Life is short.

 

[skip.knox]

I'm with T.Allen.Smith. A few years ago, about the age of sixty, I took a look at myself and realized something significant: I have always been writing. First it was poetry and fiction, then for a long stretch it was history, then it was both history and fiction.

Huh, I said. (I'm eloquent like that) It appears that I am a writer.

Writing is something I appear unable to avoid. I can't say that I love it; it is too much of a chore for that particular verb. It's simply an indelible part of my existence. I don't even feel the need to explain or assess it. I just keep doing it.

The sea change, those few years ago, was that I realized I wanted to publish. I wanted to turn my writing into actual stories, see them all the way to publication. I would like them to sell, mostly as a way for me to know people are actually reading them. I don't care if it's trad published or self-published, I just want to write all the way to done, to understand the entire process, not just the get-it-on-paper front end of the process.

Any number of published writers have said this: if you can possibly avoid writing, do so. If you can in any way be discouraged from writing, then quit. A career in writing is for those who have been unable to find any other dodge. This makes writing unlike other arts. I play music and it matters not one whit whether or not I release it or even if someone else hears it. That's why I'm not a musician, I'm just a guy who makes music. When he feels like it. With writing, though, I am chained to it, driven by it, flogged with it. I think that's one reason why I so readily try to find anything else at all to do, before the damned harpy drives me back to the story-in-progress.

YMMV (Your Misery May Vary)

 

[Heliotrope]

^^^ this is my experience as well, though I'm 30 years younger. Writing is something I have always done. Be it poetry, journals, short stories, non fiction, essays.... Writing is how I make sense of my world. It is a must for me. I can't escape it. I couldn't "quit" writing.

Like these guys, eventually I said "I wonder if anyone else would be interested in what i have to say?" And I started to focus more on trying to be published... But that isn't why I write. I just feel things very deeply and find connections in strange ways and I absolutely must write them down.

I can't draw. I like to draw. I don't need to draw. So I will never be an artist and I'm ok with that.

 

[Peat]

I write in the hope of achieving immortality and a job where I never have to put clothes on

More seriously, I write because I keep thinking of stories and I get snarly if I don't write. Like T. Allen Smith said, it's become a habit. If I didn't try to write books, I'd be in countless online RPGs, writing and creating. I do sometimes wonder at what point I'd stop chasing writing novels but I know that, even if I succumbed to the lure of the proper career, I'd still be writing in my free time for relaxation.

And yes, I would have something to say with my books when that day comes, although I hope my messages will be softly spoken and raise questions for readers, rather than preaching from the pulpit at them.

 

[Penpilot]

I write because I have stories to tell.

It took me until I was around 20 to realized I wanted to write, and I've kind of always been writing. For a while, I dreamed of drawing comics, but I realized I prefered the process of creating stories about the characters I drew rather than the actual drawing.

The only thing holding me back was fear. My grammar skills were, and in some ways are still, pretty lacking. Took some growing up to overcome that fear, but once I did, looking back, it seemed like a silly fear.

You never get better at anything without failing--alot. Sometimes it's one big failure. Other times, it's a lot of little ones. Sometimes it's all in private. Other times, it's in front of the whole world.

At this point in my life, I'm too old to give a damn about what others think if and when I fail. I want as few regrets as possible before the long kiss goodnight.

I want to do this for a living, and I'm taking steps to make that happen. Will I become good enough before my time runs out, who knows. But it doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying.

Actually, if I knew for an absolute certainty that I'd never get published, I'd still do it. Becuase there's one fan out there that wants to know what happens next with all the charactes and worlds I've created, and that's me.

I mean, if I knew there was zero chance, it certainly would take some pressure off, but pressure isn't always bad, it can help put a flame under your arse.

I write for the same reasons people garden or play sports or travel. It's something that enriches my life. I give myself to it, and it gives back what I put in and more.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Hmm, I declared I wanted to be writer when I was around 9, and knew I wanted to write fantasy after watching Wizards and Bakshi's LoTR back to back one day at the theater around '78-'79, which got me to read Tolkien at 10. Pretty much wrote ever since, although its varied from gaming, to academic, to poetic, to screenwriting, to novels, to shorts, etc., but I was never content with anything I did.

I always wrote to some degree, but chasing women and alcohol... I mean college... and life got in the way, as well as a bad youthful attitude and a paralyzing fear of failure and totally useless writing courses, which took me in different directions. But always in the back of my head the stories grew. Then around 2000 I got the screenwriting bug, which was a great disease even if I don't have the personality (nor the ability or desire to move to the H'wood area) to push screenplay sales and rub elbows. But, I learned to finish larger projects and that at least some people thought I had talent without cause to BS me, and at some point I decided I needed to go back to fantasy. But then life stepped in, I opened a small business that ate my time, adopted a couple kids, my wife bought goats... yeah, life is a weird thing... and finally I hammered my prose into something I like and don't gag on if it sits for a month without looking at it.

The world and stories I write have been evolving for 30+ years and has reached a point where the world speaks to me (write my stories), and now that I like my writing and have come to find revising addictive (another thing that screenwriting and age have done for me) the time has come to chase the gold ring... and hopefully not fall into the fire with it.

 

[MineOwnKing]

As with any activity, writing becomes tedious for a variety of reasons. It's easy to spoil ourselves with a bit of good writing because the satisfaction of creating it is rewarding and permanent. This for me is the driving force, to see my creation and know in my heart that it is good. It may only be a paragraph, a sentence, a word--and yet joy is awakened, demanding more.

However, wordsmithing is not enough, blank pages need filling, the story must go on. What keeps me going to finish a project? For me, nothing else feels normal. I am only me when I write. No other job, friend or recreation gives me equal sense of purpose.

 

[FifthView]

A career in writing is for those who have been unable to find any other dodge.

This really needs to be engraved on a plaque and attached to the wall over my desk.

I've reached the point in my life where the will to do anything else has evaporated. This helps lower the bar for writing. I recently watched a documentary on the de' Medici's rise to power which included a bit on Michelangelo: Apparently, he was so obsessive when he was carving, he would go months without even removing his shoes, hardly ate or slept, etc.; so, when he finally removed his shoes, skin would come off. I am no Michelangelo, but I picture a similar ending to my life–although I won't need to be wearing shoes.

I think the ultimate inspiration will come when the rest of the world drops away and I finally give in to writing just whatever the heck I want, in however a crazy manner I want, without concern about publication or pleasing people. After that inspiration comes the editing, where I start to think about those other things. The point: Such a total sacrifice of other pursuits–or, commitment to writing–needs to have a reward as great as the commitment, so you might as well accept and enjoy the freedom you have to write whatever you want to write in the way you want to write it.

 

[Reilith]

I am a fairly green writer - I've yet to finish a full project. But even so, throughout my whole life writing has been my strongest passion, the thing I always got back to when it was rough, the only thing I continued to pursue since I was a child. Reading and more so, writing keep me afloat. It is a need that has to be satisfied, even though my life is in chaos and I have a ton of responsibilities I don't feel ready for. Work, uni, "grown up" things - it is all overwhelming, and more over the anxiety and depression that takes hold sometimes, but writing helps me combat it at the root and gives me hope. I really wish to become a professional writer in the future, a good writer and that wish and need are what always keeps me from giving up. When I don't have inspiration or don't think it's worth it, I let it set for a bit, try something new and then always come back to writing, refreshed and ready to plunge into my imaginary worlds. It's the best and most beautiful outlet for all the creativity I am constantly feeling. I can do anything, be anyone, visit anyplace and create whatever I feel like. I can combat any problem I see in a literary way and showcase my opinion on the subject in a way that doesn't involve anyone else but me, unless I choose so. I find it wonderful and uplifting, even when I'm sitting at my desk at 3 am pondering over the use of lie vs. lay even though I've studied it more times than I can remember. It's a life within a life, that I have total control over and it helps immensely.
Sorry for the rambling, I hope you find this helpful.

 

[kennyc]

I hope to leave something of worth behind.

 

[Tom]

I've always loved to tell stories. That's why I write. As a child I would tell myself stories to fall asleep at night, and when I read books whose endings didn't satisfy me I would create my own ending, or even rewrite the entire book for myself. As I've gotten older I've extended my passion for storytelling--I don't want to write stories exclusively for myself anymore, but for others as well. Sharing the worlds I've created has become a dream of mine. I want other people to be able to experience the same sense of discovery and wonder that I did when my ideas first came to me.

It's been a difficult journey for sure. It's hard to find time to write in between the responsibilities and obligations I have to juggle every day, and sometimes I have stretches where I simply don't have the mental energy or attention span to write. I actually just came out of a period of insane writer's block; I still have yet to get my groove back but I'm making progress. Writing has been a coping mechanism for me, kind of a solid foundation as everything else in my life has changed over the years. I might be a different person than I was a few years ago--or even last year--but I'm still a writer and a storyteller. That will never change.

 

[Chessie]

At this point in my life, the need to write has overtaken the wanting. If I'm not working on something, I feel like a criminal, as if I'm cheating or letting myself down in some fashion.

I suppose, at some level, the habit I once worked to create has taken root. Walking away from writing is not an option. That's why I'm certain of future success. The only question is when.

I don't say this to be harsh, or condescending, or depressing, but there are loads of people that want to write. Very few actually do write. Fewer still persevere to the success they envision. I suppose the question is where do you fall?

There's no shame in any choice, and success should be defined on your own terms, but if writing doesn't make you happy in some way...if you don't feel drawn to writing, why bother? There are plenty of other endeavors that may.

Life is short.

It's like you're in my head! This pretty much sums it up for me. Like many others here, I've been writing stories since grade school. I filled numerous notebooks with stories and drawings mostly about my classmates. I even queried during my late teens/early twenties.

So yeah, writing fiction for a living is something I've always wanted to do. The only reason why I went to college was to please my parents and although I worked in my "field" for some time, they got pretty pissed when I quit my job with Fish & Game to go wait tables just so that I could write. And it's been a steady movement towards publication ever since.

Life isn't easy, but writing has always helped me put my feelings and thoughts on paper. It's honestly the only thing I've ever been good at and had people tell me that I was good, too. I also really love animals and was on the verge of applying to veterinary school when I said, "f** it, I'll write instead no matter how long it takes me."

The greatest takeaway for me has been that, while writing is fun, it's far from effortless and that, to be at the level where people are paying for my work, I have to work very, very, very hard. The people in my life don't understand what it means to me. My husband sees me get up early every morning to write like I have for the 6 years we've been together, but he admits to not "getting it" either and he knows me better than anyone else.

How do I cultivate and honor the will to continue writing? Truthfully, I rely on God daily. Get me to the chair. Give me the first sentence. Help me sustain this forever. There is no other way for me. No other option but to write every single day. Being dedicated to creating and improving will help me support my family someday, of this I'm truly sure, so I'll do it until my last breath.

 

[AJ Stevens]

To see if I can do it. To see if I can achieve something that nobody I know has done. To see if anyone else finds what I hope to one day produce interesting.

I can't say it's a passion, but it's another means of escape for me at the end of a long day. I liken it to going for a run. It can be a bit of a slog at times, but I feel great afterwards.

Whatever happens, even if another living soul never reads it, I one day hope to look at the bookcase above my desk and see something with my own name running along the spine. That would be pretty cool.

 

[Charles Parkes]

I owe finding my determination to finding my partner.

She's an artist, and a good one. And she made me confront that niggling voice that was telling me the creative arts were for people who weren't serious.

I've written my first story and my future seems much brighter now. I can talk about wanting to work (for that all important legal tender) but I can also speak with confidence of the joy I find in writing and the intention to slowly give this more time as I get older.

 

[PaulineMRoss]

I write because I have these characters in my head who won't leave me alone unless I write their stories down. Of course, when I do, there are more characters... Sigh. I've always had characters in my head, but I haven't always written them down. But eventually they got so insistent that I started writing. If other people enjoy reading about them, that's great, but I write for myself first and foremost.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I think I've gone beyond both want and need. These days I just write - there's actually not much decision making involved. Yes I love it. And I hate the editing / publishing side of it. But even when I'm not thinking about anything I'm writing. When I'm out, say at the supermarket, an idea occurs to me and I think - I must write that. Then I rush home and do it. If I'm not doing anything at all, I'll find myself writing. Hours later I'll emerge from my writing fugue state, get a coffee and return to writing, never even realising so much time has passed.

The tension is in writing to publish. First when I write, I write whatever the hell I'm passionate about. I have scores of books on my machine that I have never and will never take to the point of trying to get published, simply because I write them for me. But every so often one of those books gets close enough to complete that I think - I've got to finish it. That's when the pain begins. Because I was happy writing it without any ending or any thought of an ending in sight. Then comes the finishing, the beta reading, redrafting, editing formating etc etc - and the pain just grows until all you want to do is scream.

In it's own strange way it's like reproduction. The writing's like sex - bloody awesome and you don't even need to think about it. But then at some point it's oh shit! I'm up the duff! Then come the exercises / panic / aches and pains until finally you get left with a brand new baby book! A book you didn't really want but which you're still proud of when the stork delivers it in the mail! But after that you go back to the sex / writing again, forgetting the pain.

Oh crap! I just realised I'm a nymphomaniac!!! Can guy's be nymphomaniacs?

Cheers, Greg.

 

[kennyc]

Hi,

I think I've gone beyond both want and need. These days I just write - there's actually not much decision making involved. Yes I love it. And I hate the editing / publishing side of it. But even when I'm not thinking about anything I'm writing. When I'm out, say at the supermarket, an idea occurs to me and I think - I must write that. Then I rush home and do it. If I'm not doing anything at all, I'll find myself writing. Hours later I'll emerge from my writing fugue state, get a coffee and return to writing, never even realising so much time has passed.

The tension is in writing to publish. First when I write, I write whatever the hell I'm passionate about. I have scores of books on my machine that I have never and will never take to the point of trying to get published, simply because I write them for me. But every so often one of those books gets close enough to complete that I think - I've got to finish it. That's when the pain begins. Because I was happy writing it without any ending or any thought of an ending in sight. Then comes the finishing, the beta reading, redrafting, editing formating etc etc - and the pain just grows until all you want to do is scream.

In it's own strange way it's like reproduction. The writing's like sex - bloody awesome and you don't even need to think about it. But then at some point it's oh shit! I'm up the duff! Then come the exercises / panic / aches and pains until finally you get left with a brand new baby book! A book you didn't really want but which you're still proud of when the stork delivers it in the mail! But after that you go back to the sex / writing again, forgetting the pain.

Oh crap! I just realised I'm a nymphomaniac!!! Can guy's be nymphomaniacs?

Cheers, Greg.

Exactly! And worth repeating thus the quote!
As both Bradbury and Bukowski say it should be FUN, if it's not you're doing it wrong.

So You Want To Be a Writer: Bukowski Debunks the “Tortured Genius†Myth of Creativity – Brain Pickings

5½ Timeless Commencement Speeches to Teach You to Define Your Own Success – Brain Pickings

Enjoy!