What drives you to writing?

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CultureCitizen

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Other than the perspective of some income.
Is it the novelty of situations? The angst of the future? The use and implications of new technology? Or the exploration of philosophical ideas?
 
No idea @CultureCitizen , it's not something I ever thought of. Good question, I know a few writers and can't say there's anything in common motivating them -some want to be published so that's sort of a rough goal but doesn't answer your question. I like hearing and telling stories so writing them down seems like a worthwhile thing to do, and SF stories are my favourite.
The experienced crew on here could possibly talk about income from writing but I don't think that's a valid reason, there are many easier ways to get some cash;)
 
I don't know what my driver is or where it comes from, but it is somewhere between a compulsion and an obsession. Writing makes me happy, not being able to write makes me unhappy.

I have no idea whether making money from it would make me happy. The fact that I don't make money from it doesn't make me unhappy. (I've had income from writing, but currently run at a net loss.)

In the unlikely event that it makes me famous... I suspect that would make me unhappy.
 
After giving up several times over the years, I discovered I simply can't not write. I've been published and made a little money - not enough to consider giving up my 'real' job - but that happened long after I assumed it wouldn't happen.

I suppose writing is a compulsion and a necessity, something, however corny it sounds, that makes my life complete.
 
I see that I wrote down part of my motivation here: Writing as entertainment

To those thoughts I would now add: it is simply enjoyable to exercise my imagination and spin a yarn. If there were no one gathered around the fire, I would still tell it to myself.
 
It's an urge. It's an itch I need to scratch. Throughout my whole life that is the only thing that has been consistent. I started, I gave up, I came back. Rinse and repeat. If I wouldn't write, my head would burst open with everything going on in there. Sometimes it feels like the characters are yelling at me "write my story!" and if I don't, if I ignore them, they won't let me sleep, they won't let me focus on my daily life. I simply have to write, if I want to function. It is almost a love-hate relationship I have with writing. I hate how it controls me, a compulsion one could say, but I love to create new worlds, new stories, new people. I am creating new life with my fingers! It still amazes me, how an empty blank page gets filled with words. And those words are like a soul. I am forming a soul! That feeling, that is ecstasy. It is a drug I cannot stop taking. And just like real drugs, I hate how it can control me so easily, but I love how amazing it makes me feel. Thank goodness the side effects are not harmful.
 
It's like eating and breathing. Same with all my creative hobbies like songwriting and making music and poetry. I just do it because I have to. I can't imagine not doing it.
 
Drink. It's drink that drives me to writing. - every 1950s writer.
 
CultureCitizen said:
Other than the perspective of some income.
Is it the novelty of situations? The angst of the future? The use and implications of new technology? Or the exploration of philosophical ideas?
Click to expand...
None of those things. Like others here, I write because apparently I cannot do otherwise. If I don't write, after a while my brain starts to itch. I cannot imagine not writing. It isn't something I enjoy ("but I love having written"), it's just a compulsion.
 
When I read stories, I enjoy that sense of awe that I feel in certain scenes. It may be feeling a certain emotion, it may be a feeling of wonderment about a certain image, it may be intellectual as in the reveal of a mystery or solution to a logic puzzle. I have also read many stories where this did not happen and I said to myself, "I can do better."

Now having free time, I enjoy trying to translate some of that feeling into words and there is some pleasure in just feeling that I captured it. It is even more rewarding when other people get it as well. There is also a challenge when other people do not understand something that I felt was clear and I need to analyze why their reactions were not what I expected and how I can correct it. There are also occasions where the readers' reactions were different than I expected and I find it improves the story. In those cases, the challenge is to reinforce the unexpected reaction.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I am driven to write. Though it sounds almost manipulative, I enjoy causing other people to react in a manner of my choosing.
 
Though I published several crime novels last century, and recently a sf tale, the bulk of my wiriting is non-fiction. I like finding things out, and then explaining it for interested others. I supposee that's why I went into the ivory towers.
 
Over here in the States, it's possible to be railroaded to Reading.

Oh, wait. I wonder if the OP was perhaps not an invitation to open mic night at the forum.
 
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