Your True Purpose for Writing

[Ophiucha]

The key? Pirates. Open-shirted pirates.

Who are also vampires. That's very important.

 

[Behelit]

Who are also vampires. That's very important.

Careful.. Vampirates


@OP: I am for writing without an audience in mind. I write to create and solidify memories and events that play out in my mind. What puts me on the edge of my seat? What tugs at my "heart strings"? Where more than anywhere in the world would I want to go? Those are a couple of brief and rather generic questions I might ask myself, instead of answering for someone else in mind. Chances are the more intimate I am with my work, the more fluid and creative the resulting product.

Marketing and timing are much greater factors in resulting popularity, not quality. That's not to say you must sacrifice quality to be popular or the retention of quality will detract you from becoming popular.

I'm almost positive that Twilight is Stephanie Meyer's wet dream rather than her attempt at reaching out to teenage girls and the aforementioned middle-aged housewife.

 

[Kevin O. McLaughlin]

Actually, I gather Meyer went to a couple of major writing workshop/conference things (David Farland has talked about having a hand in her education), and studied pretty intently what people wanted to read, then wrote it.

For me? I like writing. I'm told I'm pretty decent at it. I feel like I can get better with practice. And the idea of spending four hours a morning pounding out four thousand words a day (a good hour for me is 1200-1800 words), followed by a few hours of revising the last finished piece in the evening after spending all afternoon with the kids is pretty doggone appealing to me.

 

[Sammy]

I think most people do it to try and get published, make a movie etc. But I think alot of people also do it as a form of release / catharsis. I think the best writing really does come from having something to say.

 

[Kate]

So in the end, is your "true" purpose in writing to "just be a hobby" or is it to "make some money?"

It really can't be both. Not feasibly.

Not sure that I agree. I think it can be, or at least be something like a combination of the two.

I write fiction because I make up stories in my head, and I enjoy nutting them out and forming them into something.

I write non-fiction because I like to explore certain aspects of the world, learning about things and thinking about things, and I want to make that into something tangible. I want others to read it, and comment on it, and let me comment back.

I don't necessarily enjoy writing all of the time. Some days it's darn hard work. But I do it because that's what I do. I like to have written, more than I like writing.

I write because I want people, in the end to read it. I would like to make some money out if it one day, but I don't realistically expect to ever earn a full living from it. I don't write for a hobby. Hobbies are the things I do to unwind, to rest my brain and to enjoy for the sake of themselves. I don't write to make a profit because if I did, I would have stopped already. I write to put what's inside my mind out for the scrutiny of others.

I also write because I suck at talking. Conversation is really difficult for me for some reason, I find it hard to get my thoughts out in any coherent order. When I write though, things flow better.

 

[Dr.Dorkness]

If I could make money of my writing that would be fun, but it is not the first reason I write.
First of all I write because I want to tell a story, a story of unity, fighting for freedom, and so forth. Even a story on the disasters created by men in the real world. And how we will never control nature (forever).

second: I write to be on my own, escape the real world for a little while.

 

[Kelise]

Could we then say WHAT we write can be for different reasons? Such as, we generally write one way or one length or one genre - such as generally write novel length things but may write, say, a short story, if there were an appealing prize?

That changes purposes of writing somewhat.

 

[Starrynight]

I write becasue it's my creative outlet and its fun. Writing fantacy romance is fun. Taking the elements of real live and adding in magic it's fun. I am not a painter but with my stories I paint on the canvas of peoples imaganations. Sometimes making them laugh or tugging at their heart strings a bit with an emotional or romantic place in the story. Were someone say awe they have to end up together in the end. Well at least at some place they do. lol

Starrynight

 

[Derin]

I write to play around with cliches. What is unicorns made evolutionary sense? What is the important quest existed entirely in the mind of a teenage girl who was unknowingly performing a routing task, and kept putting herself in danger trying to avoid all the bad people she imagined would be chasing somebody so important? What if the gods were beings created as servants by the humans, so long ago that no humans remember? These ideas build worlds, which I then feel compelled to write in. Whether others read them isn't important to me, except for acquiring that all-important feedback to improve writing.

 

[James Chandler]

But as of right now, I think writing silly stuff is more enjoyable and more lucrative for me. Is it better than my serious stuff? No. But it's the more attractive pursuit at the moment.

Two words: Terry Pratchett. If you feel comfortable writing "silly stuff," it may not be a huge leap to incorporate some serious ideas into your "silly stuff." You might accidentally turn it into some interesting satire.

 

[Telcontar]

Could we then say WHAT we write can be for different reasons?

Sounds like another thread, starconstant!

As to not being able to write for both a hobby and to 'make some money,' I would say that if you're talking about writing fiction to make some money, you're rather foolish. Few people make any serious money with fiction writing, compared to the vast number that try. Kinda like saying you're going into acting in order to make some money.

Of course, plenty of people make their livings writing. Just not writing fiction. I don't really intend to turn my writing into a profession UNLESS I am able to do so with my fiction.

 

[James Chandler]

I write because I love writing. I want to publish so I can keep writing. It's that simple for me. Art? With literature, it isn't art if nobody wants to read it. If you need to tweak your "art" to make more people want to read it, then it's not really a compromise.

 

[Smaug]

I write because I love writing. I want to publish so I can keep writing.

This is also my view. My main goal is to be able to support myself by writing fiction. As mentioned, it's something incredibly difficult to achieve - but it would be the best job I can think of in the universe, and therefore perhaps it's worth a shot. (I'm resisting the temptation to say something cheesy like 'You only live once' here...)

I saved enough money to support myself for a few months, and after that I'll pick up jobs that will keep me in toast and beans. Having full-time+ job that you don't hate, but also don't love, is a great motivator to take a risk.