what motivates us?

[Jo Zebedee]

So, we're here, most of us slogging away in whatever spare time we have, fitting it around work and families and interests (if you still have any, you're probably not hanging around aspiring writers enough) to try to produce something someone, someday might actually give us some money for?

Anyway following on from a discussion this morning what motivates us to do it?

I had a bad time as a teen at school - high school, who doesn't? - but it was a pretty grim time in my life and I got through it by inventing an imaginery friend, who I kind of made up stories about in my mind and zoned out with. Anyway, that was a wee while ago and his world kind of grew and his friends formed some shape and it all got a bit more detailed. I've come and gone from writing over the years, but I do tend to always come back, but mostly to the same story/set of characters.

So, for me the motivation is telling that story. I'd like to get it published, will aim to get it published, but mostly I want to tell the story to the best of my ability, make his world come to life. And enjoy as much of the process as I can, and the learning from it.

I do wonder, though, if I'll do anything else and that's where this rather rambling introduction to the thread is coming from?

how many write because the story compels them?

How many cos they love the process of writing it?

And what other reasons are out there...?

 

[Toby Frost]

This might be of interest:

http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I started writing two years ago to motivate my husband who has been writing for years. I doodled a picture of Prince Jonathan and began scribbling underneath. At some point he turned into Angus (the prince in the picture) and the scribbles became a very bad first draft of what is now Mayhem. Unfortunately instead of motivating my husband it umm ... had the opposite effect until recently and he has started getting caught up with his own stories. Prior to that I'd never had a desire to write, and I didn't intend to write a novel when I started.

Now I am motivated by the characters, an excitement to see what they do next and what they become. It is almost the same motivation and feeling I get when reading and can't put a book down.

 

[David B]

Good link, Toby. I always liked Homage to Catalonia.

Why do I write?

I guess its to offset the disappointment of having been born too early.

Someday, man will reach the stars, but I'll be dead.

It's something I would have liked to have seen and participated in.

Fiction lets me pretend I still can.

 

[Hex]

That's very sad, David.

I love the process.

 

[Fedos]

To share, mostly. Out of the three major disciplines (English, Math, and Science) English is the discipline I am clearly gifted at, so it makes sense to further develop this gift by exploring a possibility of becoming an author. That's the initial reason why I aspire to be a writer.

But since then I've become a born again Christian, and so I try to represent Christ in what I write, focusing on topics like redemption, hope, and faith.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Why do I write? Same reason I compose. I have words and images and sounds in my head, and they haunt me continuously. The only way to exorcise them is to channel them out into a creative work. Then the next set come along.

 

[HoopyFrood]

My creative writing teacher called it 'the burn' and based it off Orwell's essay (I recall reading it). I wish I could remember all if them. I know there was for money, of course. There was also humour, I think; people just having the desire to make others laugh. Then there was to stare at the abyss. To write about our own dark personal experiences and purge them. Um...like Orwell said, to write aesthetically, for its own sake, rather than telling a story. And damn it, I can't recall anymore...if I remember, I'll have to see if I can dig out the notes for this particular seminar.

 

[HareBrain]

Writing is the easiest way to create a whole world

SO YOU CAN THEN DESTROY IT!!!

Oh wait, that was another thread ...


I started because the stories I wanted to read, and the characters I wanted to identify with, weren't being written by anyone else. I think that still holds, to a large extent.

 

[AMB]

I need a reason?

No one told me!

 

[Boneman]

Good link, Toby. I always liked Homage to Catalonia.

Why do I write?

I guess its to offset the disappointment of having been born too early.

Someday, man will reach the stars, but I'll be dead.

It's something I would have liked to have seen and participated in.

Fiction lets me pretend I still can.

Well.... actually... your time here may be preparation for the next time you're here, when you will go to the stars. Let's face it, nobody has proved or disproved life after death/nothing after death/reincarnation, so there's still a chance!!

I started writing for a creative outlet -crap at drawing, crap at music, and like HB because there was work I wanted to read that wasn't there. I once said disparagingly to an actress friend "I could write better than this rubbish!" Can't remember what it was, may have been 'Crossroads', and she said "Do it, then." So I did, and got such a buzz from it, that I've been hooked ever since. Now, if I don't write it down, the 'as-yet-unborn-but-already-realised-characters' haunt my dreams...

 

[mosaix]

For me the stories I like the best are mysteries. First, I like trying to solve the mystery then I like examining how the author structured the story.

So I enjoy doing the same things as I write. First I decide on the mystery then enjoy constructing the story around it, hoping to give the same kind of pleasure to the reader.

 

[Mouse]

Nothing really 'motivates' me. I write because that's what I've always done. I can't remember having ever not written stories. I also don't really understand why not everybody writes stories.

It's just something I do. Like eating lots of cake.

 

[TheTomG]

Mmmm cake.

Oh wait, motivations. I have things in my head that I want to share with others, connecting mind-to-mind or soul-to-soul even, and art (in all its forms) lets you do that in a way that transcends merely sitting face to face and having a conversation with someone. It lets you "beam" a feeling or thought or experience or world view from the bony cage of your skull into another being's life and essence. In this way, we need not be quite so alone.

It would also be to return the favor, where I've read things by writers and felt no longer quite so isolated, finding some echo of things I have thought or felt or wondered about - so it would be nice if I could do that for someone else too.

Now, where were we again? Oh yes - cake!

 

[Galacticdefender]

I started writing for several reasons. One of which is that I have always loved science fiction, and wanted to create my own SF universe. That's probably the chief reason. I like writing because it is fun first and foremost. A lot of people I know who write are sort of depressing people, who (I assume?) write to have some kind of outlet for their feelings. I'm not like that. I'm just in it for the scifi!

One of the only really deep philosophical messages in my scifi universe comes from a long dead (sort of) alien race who I kind of see as a possible vision of humanity's future. Other than that, I just want to write an awesome story.

 

[Galacticdefender]

Good link, Toby. I always liked Homage to Catalonia.

Why do I write?

I guess its to offset the disappointment of having been born too early.

Someday, man will reach the stars, but I'll be dead.

It's something I would have liked to have seen and participated in.

Fiction lets me pretend I still can.

And this. This is another reason why I write.

 

[Warren_Paul]

Why do I write? Same reason I compose. I have words and images and sounds in my head, and they haunt me continuously. The only way to exorcise them is to channel them out into a creative work. Then the next set come along.

This ^^

I'm like I,Brian and that I always have some story floating around in my head, only through writing it do I somehow move on from thinking about that scene to another. They never leave me alone though, I think I'll be writing forever now.

I really enjoy it, I love being creative, and if I can make a career out of it then all the better.

Writing is the easiest way to create a whole world

SO YOU CAN THEN DESTROY IT!!!

Oh wait, that was another thread ....

And HareBrain still scares us...

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

What motivates me for writing?


Fun and challenge. Not money, not even an audience, but for the simple joy of it. Seeing what I can put down and seeing what happens, and challenging myself to keep something going.


Now if I could find a way to edit, then I'd be near unstoppable. An exaggeration, but the challenge part of it comes from trying to bring logic into the equation. I look at my work as a reader as well, and while a lot of stuff eludes my mind, I do know it's not good business to follow a "this happens because it happens" philosophy. No. You need reason behind each and every action and possibility. Whys and hows need to be able to be answered in some form that makes sense. That's the challenge part, to me.

 

[Coragem]

The older I get the more I tell myself, don't focus on regrets -- get going down that road and never ends. Still, I do regret not writing earlier. I did a little at school as a young boy and my teachers praised my work (even entering some in talent events), yet I was never truly encouraged.

Or rather, I WAS encouraged, encouraged to think that writing was nice fun for a boy but something I should forget once I was growing up. Accordingly, I focussing on more "realistic" aspirations, and failed to begin seriously developing my ability until very recently.

I feel similarly to many who have commented already:

... mostly I want to tell the story to the best of my ability, make his world come to life. And enjoy as much of the process as I can, and the learning from it.

I hope and believe I'll be published, but I'll be proud regardless if I tell my story as well I as can, and if I do justice to my characters.

Now I am motivated by the characters ...

Me too. My characters are very "real" and special to me, and now I've created them I owe it to them to let them live and grow.

I guess its to offset the disappointment of having been born too early.

Someday, man will reach the stars, but I'll be dead.

Yes, me too, although imagining it from a keyboard probably has a few advantages over the real thing. Home comforts.

But since then I've become a born again Christian, and so I try to represent Christ in what I write, focusing on topics like redemption, hope, and faith.

As a born again atheist, or "rational humanist", I also like to focus on redemption, hope and faith. Still, for me this might involve imagining a world within which more people met their needs (for love, security, and knowledge) without gods.

Coragem.

 

[Warren_Paul]

The older I get the more I tell myself, don't focus on regrets -- get going down that road and never ends. Still, I do regret not writing earlier. I did a little at school as a young boy and my teachers praised my work (even entering some in talent events), yet I was never truly encouraged.

Or rather, I WAS encouraged, encouraged to think that writing was nice fun for a boy but something I should forget once I was growing up. Accordingly, I focussing on more "realistic" aspirations, and failed to begin seriously developing my ability until very recently.

I hope and believe I'll be published, but I'll be proud regardless if I tell my story as well I as can, and if I do justice to my characters.

I know how you feel there, I've always wanted to write, but not until recently have I been serious about it, always tried to get a "real career" which never really worked out for me. I've also had people call me a fool for voicing an interest in writing as a career in the past. Funny how now that I've got a manuscript finished and people have had a chance to read it, and like it, I've had nothing but positive encouragement instead.

Now I realize I should have just concentrated on the writing years ago. I'm committed to it now and believe I will be published, its just a matter of time.