The usual reasons ... self-expression, a love of language, the search for truth, the impulse to creativity, and a need to share ....
About two years ago, I decided to start taking writing seriously. For a couple of reasons. It's the only artform (besides music, but that was discovered too late, in my late teens) where I feel I have a bit of a natural talent (not that I am amazing or anything, just comes easily to me). My thirties are going to officially end in around 6 months, which is.. startling to say the least. I feel that I have largely wasted the past 15 years of my life. By writing two books and attempting to sell them in earnest, it's easier to live with myself, because I can at least say that I really did try. I think most people just talk about their dreams rather than put in the effort and try to make them come true (especially when the odds seem impossible).
That's a compelling statement. Can you elaborate, if possible? How were they taken away from you? Will you ever be able to get them back?
I was a performing musician for 30 years; arthritis curtailed that. I moved into being a recording studio engineer; the studio manager turned out to be a thief and the owner closed the studio. I opened my own audio post facility in 2002. I was flooded in 2007 and it took 2 years to get back up and running. Then Hurricane Ida put 6+ feet of water into my studio in 2021 and that was that. It's tough to start over again broke, divorced and 65.
Because it seems like no one else has made the universe I am interested in. That is just a streak of horrible luck. Sorry to hear.
As Grandpa used to say, "It's real life, kid; deal with it!" I have to admit, I'm fornicating tired of dealing with it.
I started writing Story 1 as a desperate attempt to quell a years-long nightmare. I started story 2 because it had been in my head for two decades and I realized I could write Story 1.
O...K. When I started writing, it was fan-fiction. I wanted to share stories and poetry with others, inasmuch as I was able to. I wrote a five-parter story (totalling goodness knows how many words) and another fan-fiction parodying politics, and perhaps 500+ song parodies over that period. I loved the idea that, by changing the words of a song, I was able to create a "brand-new" song with a different message. (Naturally, all of this was just for fun, no commercial intention or application. But as English isn't my first language, doing this was also an exercise in sharpening my English skills, upgrading my vocab, etc., I'm sure you all know the drill!) I started out with fantasy, but fantasy is hard to sell to people who don't read fantasy. So, I decided to write history (it has armour/weapons in common with fantasy), coupled with mythology (because it has the kind of magic you'd see from wizards etc.) Naturally, I'm taking it very seriously and doing loads of research to make sure I get it right. So now, I'm writing the kind of stories I want to write because, when I was growing up, they didn't exist. That, and 'cos I said I'd write the bugger, so I'm gonna the bugger. Which is why I'm here instead of writing the bugger. Better finish resolving the critique comments I received on chapter 2 and make a start on chapter 3. I'm not writing because I'm expecting to become rich and famous. But if I do, it'd be nice. ***UPDATE*** Chapter 2 done. On to chapter 3. Onward and upward!
I love writing because I love language. The ability to conjure ideas into the minds of other people with just some glyphs on paper is an incredible form of magic. I also have struggled with anxiety and depression and found that writing horror allowed me to assume control of those things and make them do what I want, instead of the other way around. (I'm medicated and doing well now.)
There is every reason under the sun for people to write. Therapy, excitement, beliefs and ideas, variations on a theme, but how many can say that they write simply to find out what they can truly do? Honing the ability to take far flung and seemingly disparate ideas and odd pieces and MacGyvering them into a format that shouldn't be functional, let alone coherent, but some how it actually works.
A combination of things. I'm told I have a talent for it, I really like telling stories and I have a lot of stuff to work through.
I think it was May Angelou who said "If you can't find the book you want to read, you must write it." (Or something like that.) I feel that way. Both of my non-fiction books were about things that were never told before in a way that I wanted to read about. Writing about what's been written before, in a way that's been written before, seems to be a waste of time to me. I just gave a friend of mine his first book by Kurt Vonnegut... Slaughterhouse Five. He said, "I've never come across anybody who wrote like this." It was completely outside his literary experience. That's what's always made Vonnegut so compelling for me. Even his not-so-good writing came from a different angle.
I've tried not writing and in the least eloquent terms I can use, it sucks. I feel most at peace when I use my writing voice.
Why do you write? To crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentation of the women.
Conan the Barbarian, eh? He stole it from Genghis Khan, who famously said: "The greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathed in tears, to clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters." (Genghis was ballsy as anything, which is one reason why I always loved Genghiz Cohen)
I started writing to find an escape. I say that writing found me because I never sought it, never wanted to be a writer, yet writing is very much a part of me. The stories I have created, my journey in writing is a bumpy road, but I've learnt a lot about myself and I feel writing makes me a calmer person. Part of my motivation into why I write is to find out what I can achieve. I have lofty ambitions not because I feel I am so talented in attaining them, but it is the goal for me to push and take the criticisms, find the discipline to knuckle down, continually learn and live a writer's life. I've followed many 'new' writers, was part of their journey. only to watch them fall away... I don't want to be one of them.
Because I have an overactive imagination, always have. So, when I write, I can go anywhere I want. From flying through a galaxy to walking on other planets. And I can see anything I want to see, from dragons, to dinosaurs, to aliens. Of course, I only write when I'm inspired and I often go through long dry patches in between stories, but I love to create when I feel the need to do so.
