Why Do You Write?

[Magus]

I love to write because it is a way to express your creative mind. This is why I like to write.

[maieo]

I write because it lets me release pent-up emotions through pen and paper, rather than through sexual frustration.

kidding. but the "release emotions" part is real enough. I'm an angsty teenager.

[Rashad 117]

I write cause no matter how good  real life seems fantasy is generally better.
that and I been told a few times that I'm good at it.

[SaraCollins]

I write because things in my head go FTL and I have a symbiotic relationship with the keyboard.  Plus my (creative) writing is good. (About my essays...well...)

[etoiline]

I write because it's fun. Because it's a fantastic escape from my very practical profession. Because I'm a creative person at heart but for some reason I keep thinking I can be good at the sciences.

Because I have dreams that demand to be told. Because I can hear the music, sometimes, that underlies the scene that I'm writing, and my fingers can't do anything other than type, or put pencil to paper.

Because there are authors out there that make me clutch a book to my chest and say, damn. I hope that someday I will have a novel out there that does the same to someone else.

Because my imagination runs away from me, sometimes, and I get frustrated when I can't follow. Because people tell me that I'm pretty good at it (though some might have a little familial bias). Because I always have, and I hope I always will. It's taken a while, but I've found out that writing is what makes me happiest.

~Cal

[skaoi]

because i became frustrated with trying to find something i wanted to read from other authors.  i started picking up books to read and invariably put them down in disgust, snarling, 'i can write better than this.'

[Velkyn_Faer]

I write because things in my head go FTL and I have a symbiotic relationship with the keyboard.  Plus my (creative) writing is good. (About my essays...well...)

Amen to the last part! My writing is the same. I could sit for hours turning out a sci-fi or fantasy story, but the second someone asks me to write an essay I find I have better things to do. This frustrates my teachers to no end.

Taylor

[Claire]

I started writing as a way to escape from my mom's cancer for a bit.  Then, I fell in love with my characters.  now, I can't get to sleep without writing a little bit each night.

That, and if I didn't write, I'd go insane from the attacks from the Plot Bunnies.

[CynDe]

I think Alexander Pope wrote:
Why do I write?
What sin unknown
Dip't me in ink
My parents or my own?

I write because I need to. I have a very practical job that is all-too steeped in reality. I use a lot of creativity in my teaching, but sometimes stories and characters fall into my brain and demand to be expressed.

I completely understand what Terry Pratchett wrote about ideas floating through the multiverse and lodging in people's brains.

[CrazyGerbilLady]

Because if I don't my characters won't leave me alone.  They pop up in my dreams.  I find myself creating plot lines for them in my head at weird moments.  I find myself thinking how would they interact with this other character, and playing out scenes in my head.  The only way to keep my brain mine is to devote some time periodically to writing them down.  That seems to keep them content.

[silentminister]

It's the only thing that keeps me going. I can write, or sit around and wait for the next book in a series to come out. My best writing comes out when I'm mad at someone, usually my parents or my brother... I wrote something around 20 poems between august of last year and april of this year... But I also dwindle into actually writing stories. I'm about to start writing a fantasy story.. working on the plot. gtg...

[Rock Me Asmodeus]

Hmm… how about an itemized list?

1.   It’s fun!
2.   I could give up dreams of being a writer easily enough.  I just couldn’t give up on the actual WRITING.
3.   Putting the escapist fantasies in my head into print is cheaper than renting or buying someone else’s.
4.   I work until I drop and I live an hour’s drive from anywhere.  I can’t think of anything else to do with my scant free time.
5.   I could pour hours of lifetime into writing and not even notice the passage of time.  The present job makes this something of an inconvenience, actually.  I don’t care.  See #1.
6.   Figuring out how characters work actually helps me understand and cope with real people.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but real people are REALLY weird.  Also, annoying. 
7.   I live almost entirely in my head.  Writing gives me something tangible to show for it.
8.   I’m probably never going to get back to college.  But I can still be everything I ever wanted to be…for a few pages.   

[Blaze]

For me, writing is like giving birth.  The story is here inside me, and then it needs to come out.  I could no more stop writing than I could have stopped from having my babies.  If only publishers reacted to new authoirs like folks react to new babies.

[blgarver]

For me, writing is like giving birth.  The story is here inside me, and then it needs to come out.  I could no more stop writing than I could have stopped from having my babies.  If only publishers reacted to new authoirs like folks react to new babies.

That pretty much hits the nail on the head for me too, Blaze.  Except for that part where I'm a dude and have never given birth...but the other stuff is the same.

[Blaze]

BL, for you it is like passing a kidney stone.  At least my husband says that that is as close as a guy comes to giving birth.