Why DO you write?

Shakespeare said "the pen is sharper than the sword" and one day I shall write the evil truth about all those who have wronged me.

i write to reassure myself. i write to release the pent up emotions and thoughts that i can not share with the world any other way. i write to keep myself from plunging into uncertain non returnable depths. i write to please. i write because of love of writing. i write to express. i write because im not judged in writing, no one knows who am i, no one can say it is right or wrong, it is freedom of speech. Free. i write to be free...i write. (who knows what im talking about? it made sense in my head at least. Maybe some one will understand. Maybe)

hi all; I write because it comes easy to me to put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard. I love to write mainly because rather than storing my knowledge in my small brain I want to share it. you are correct it does make someone pause for thought about why people write!

Gail says most of it for me, I'd go mad if I couldn't let it out in writing... I suppose it's therapy, but there's also the hope of casting new light, sharing the joy of words - I suppose that's the aesthetic enthusiam bit of the theory. It's also good to make up rude limericks over a few drinkies... There was a young person.... over to you.

I write because it feels natural to me, characters walk into my head and start doing stuff and if I didn't get it down I think I'd explode. Writing also makes me feel good about myself. It's a bit of an ego boost I suppose. Makes me feel clever. But even if it didn't I think I'd still do it, it's great fun. :)

I write because I'm too weedy to be a hod-carrier.

I write because when I do and people read it they generally seem to enjoy the experience which makes me feel good. My writing is just an extension of my general conversation and thoughts that I tend to force into any social situation. This way people who don't want to hear me don't have to.

I write because my mind never switches off. For me not to write would be a waste of a literary giants skill and I'd probably be arrested for not sharing with the world my genius. To summarise for me not to write would be a bigger disaster than reality TV. Now please be on your way...

I made a pact with myself,which i have succeded in till this day, never to write anything half decent ever again!A teacher announced to the school (and his brother) in disbelief, that i had wrote a poem which according to his carrying on's must have been okay.The embarresment hurt so much i swore never to attempt anything remotely good enough which would attract so much attention. The rubble of life has buried what ever ability was there.It probably resembles a burst balloon.Now ,i'm bored,depressed,isolated and trying to blow life into something that died a sorry death a long time ago!I wish now i could attract, 0.1%. of the attention my poem attracted when i was 9yrs old! Fucking English teachers always right"You'll regret not taking your exams!"

I write as an escape and to enjoy but then again that's pretty normal.

Compulsion.

I write 'cos its practically the only way for my feelings to come out. When I first realised my first ever poem I'd properly written was half-decent, and that the teach. wanted it for the wall outside the classroom (oh, the fame!) it felt soooooo good. Now I write 'cos its the only thing that makes me feel good, makes me feel like I can do something worthwhile, and if I didn't I'd "go mad in these depths of despair" (to quote from my poem entitled 'Music' if your interested). Peace all, luv, li'l Willow

I write because otherwise I'd have to wear a scarlet "H" (for hypocrite) on my chest. I live in a world of mini-malls, McDonalds, and Mariah Carey muzak. I make fun of that world all the time but I still benefit from it. So, I write to be creative and to show that I'm someone else besides some guy with a cell phone and a bunch of Gap clothing. So far my plan to differentiate myself isn't working, but I have hope. Actually, I think I write just to hear myself, too. I don't mean in the sense that I love to hear myself talking/writing, but more along the lines that my head is so full of work and the house and my lovelife, etc, etc, etc, that I get lost in there somehow. Writing is maddening but ultimately calming -- that sort of thing. Blargh.

I write because I can .. for years I was told I couldn't.

my good freind carl once said, and i have quoted this before, and yes it was walking home late drunk and full of ourselves... " if we didn't write we'd be f***ed "

i write for different reasons now. when i was a kid it was always in rhyme, so i got some kind of musical kick out of it, and of course theres always a feeling of power, especially if writing is in type of print and not handwritten. But now its just relief at having got some part of that seething untidy mass out into the open and confined into paragraphs. I can only make quite a horrible metaphor really - it's like being constipated and then being able to say "I've just been" Pounds lighter really. It's not like giving birth because there's always such a lot of it remaining.

I write because i can't draw...my horses look like anteaters wearing stilleto heels....

It was a stretch, but I could see how all four of them would apply to me. (I especially like the childhood bit...heh heh...)

i write because i love the sound/sight/smell/touch of my own voice...some days it's the only proof i have that the vortex of pain despair confusion and paranoia that forms my bleak and damaged life is actually worth pursuing...

I write out of an obsessive compulsion to get all this sh1t out of my head and to exorcise my demons. I put things down on paper in a frivolous, humorous manner in order to trivialise any true feelings I have out of existence because I can't deal with them in a rational, adult fashion. I want to make money out off it too, but not be famous. I want to get to the point where I can become a recluse and shut myself off from the rest of the world. an amicable divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. Don't wish to sound cynical though. Anyway, I'm off to fantasise sexually about anteaters in stilleto heels.

i wrote about this subject ages ago...it's a poem called freedom..i am not sure what set is it in...it's very indulgent and precious..ha ha..what a surprise!! basically bits of all those four reasons...except political..i don't do political..in the past i have written and done so much politically..that i cannot bring any of it into my writing..if i won't do political..i won't write it... xx

i write because i am no good at anything else ...

I write mainly for therapy. George Orwell missed that one. I started writing as I was not intellectually stimulated enough by my job, I was bored and depressed. I gave up work one day a week to "do something creative" but had no idea what. Now I have found a balance working part-time and enjoy the challenge of writing part-time. I do it for mental agility and because I'd be depressed if I didn't. I do it because it's difficult, and because if it's not difficult enough you can always make it so by trying something completely different. I do it because I always have so many thoughts and feelings going on in my head and if I don't get them out I will be driven mad by them. Writing eats up my overactive thoughts and saves me from them! it is wonderful.

The need to be creative maybe...... Looking for a possible route away from the current rat trap into another one...... Feeling of achievement if people like the stuff..... An excuse not to do the DIY...... The desire to get noticed and get filthy rich......