What Motivates You to Write?

[Blade Master]

My motivation is basically to write something that i feel that i want to express- most of my ideas come from dreams and i really want to tell people about these dreams- if that makes any sense

 

[Rosemary]

Please Grandma, write us another story!

 

[Urien]

A man with a ravenous rat studded whip beats me until I write more.

 

[Sapheron]

I want to be published and be able to walk into a room and say 'Yeah, I'm an author". That dream comes above almost all else in my life.

 

[Commonmind]

You are an author Saph, feel free to tell anyone that already. What would be nice is walking into a room and saying "Yeah, I'm a published Author!"

 

[Culhwch]

Though that's probably technically true, Commonmind, I think claiming that you are an 'author' brings with it the connotations that you are already published. I would say that I write, or that I'm a writer (though I don't often offer that willingly) because to me someone who writes professionally is an author.

 

[Nesacat]

It's the need to get the words out of my head and onto something else, usually paper. I write the old-fasioned way. It's almost as if the words need to get out and are hammering at the door. It's not a concsious decision to sit down and write per se.

 

[j d worthington]

Though that's probably technically true, Commonmind, I think claiming that you are an 'author' brings with it the connotations that you are already published. I would say that I write, or that I'm a writer (though I don't often offer that willingly) because to me someone who writes professionally is an author.

Yes. The distinction I've often seen by published writers (who nonetheless make a distinction in favor of "writers" over "authors") is: "A writer writes. An author is someone who gets their name put on books." But the emphasis there is that the writer, published or otherwise, is a very special thing. As Harlan Ellison says, "writing is a holy chore." I'd tend to agree.

(I know, I know... thoroughly indefensible on any logical grounds. To heck with it. I agree, anyway. )

 

[Myth]

My life gets me writing, and I'm not saying I mope and spite everyone around me into horrible characters. I just take my experiances to create new worlds, ideas that form into my head and most of all werid dreams about androids and virtual realitites.

I just love how creativity has no bounds, you can do anything as long as you love what you're writing and how the idea comes out. If that made any sense...

 

[Commonmind]

Though that's probably technically true, Commonmind, I think claiming that you are an 'author' brings with it the connotations that you are already published. I would say that I write, or that I'm a writer (though I don't often offer that willingly) because to me someone who writes professionally is an author.

Of course I agree, I was more or less playing off his post simply so I could say it would be nice walking into a room and saying "I'm a published author," as that is a motivator for myself.

 

[Talysia]

I just love how creativity has no bounds, you can do anything as long as you love what you're writing and how the idea comes out. If that made any sense...

That makes perfect sense to me, Myth.

 

[monomaniac101]

I dream in color. I know it sounds random, but it relates to this, in a way. I have a huge imagination, and I love putting those ideas on paper, even they never get finished. Mostly they're dreams, about people who can do things that are impossible for me to do. Or, they're about people who are based off of myself. Part of me is artistic, another is musical, but yet another is intelligent and analytical. I love challenges, so writing out different challenges for myself (or more specifically, the characters I'm writing about) is great fun to me. Plus, I love making up names.

The strangest things can motivate me or spark a new idea. Like a bright yellow Hummer or a German shepard. Others are things like celebrities or nationalities. And of course, I had that obsessive love of princesses when I was young, so I write about them occassionally, as well (just in a less frou-frou way).

If that made any sense, that's pretty much how I explain it. And if it didn't make any sense, that pretty much sums up my thoughts...crazy and random.

 

[Pantheon]

What motivates me is having all this imagination in my head and not using it. Writing it down into a story is my motivation. needless to say i'm not motivated all the time, as i've been working on one story for two years on and off, but I have only managed to write about seven chapters. Other things have stopped me writing that I wont go into.

I definitely don't write for 8 hours a day, that'd probably kill me. I write every now and then for a couple of hours or more at a time, ideas for my book, and rough drafts for chapters. Only when i want to rewrite my chapters will I spend any significant amount of time writing, them. That is just to make them flow better, as writing bits and adding them together doesnt work, especially as a motivator. The only thing that would keep me writing for 8 hours a day probably would be money, but I have no desire to get my work published, so I do it for the satisfaction, of hopefully creating a wonderful story, that people would like to read.

 

[Interference]

A need...

 

[Dexter]

When I was a teen-ager, back in the '80s {ahem}, I often wrote with a friend and motivation wasn't a problem. Writing well was, but.... Now I write the way most people seem to. Alone. And motivation has certainly been an issue. I'm all excited and energized when my idea is new, but as it matures the energy fades and the project eventually lies dormant, much like Cthulhu under the sea.

So I don't know what motivates me. I wish I knew. The good news is I get another chance to discover just such a thing as I've started another project. Personally I blame this site for surrounding me with so many creative people as to fire my imagination.

It's all your fault, dang it.

I knew I'd like it here.

 

[mirinda]

What motivates me to write? Simple. I enjoy creating a story people will like. I want to put something good back into the world before I leave it. Plus it's one thing I'm good at. I try to accentuate what I'm good at to make it great.

 

[vintagefury]

One of my favorite pieces of music to listen to (especially when writing a fight scene) is Wagner's "O Fortuna" [commonly recognized as the title theme from the movie "Excalibur"].

Carl Orff, not Wagner. It's the opening (and closing) to one of the most famous compositions, Carmina Burana, famous specifically because for its time it was so odd - a completely secular text in a sea of scared music. Lots of drinking and sex in there. O Fortuna is depressing as hell, but the rest of it is really awesome. Check out Fortuna Plango Vulnera - best part of that whole composition if you ask me. The brass and drums kick my ... bottom? I don't know if I can say "@ss."

I write because I actually enjoy the act of putting words on paper. I rarely enjoy the act of sharing said words, for many reasons. I live under perpetual paranoia that I'm absolutely inept and those who care for me and are close to me will bolster me with false encouragement, until I grow enough balls to actually show someone who doesn't know me my work, and then my bubble is burst rather abruptly.

I like making characters, designing them, developing them, writing their dialog, writing scenarios for them, trying and seeing how it all turns out. I feel a great catharsis from just putting words down. I suppose I'm just silly that way. It's nothing about having to get the art out, or that I feel I have a story worth telling. I don't. I don't fool myself into thinking anything I could ever come up with is original in the slightest. They say art imitates life, but really, art just imitates art. I just enjoy being another monkey-see monkey-do, I guess

I'm selfish. I write for me. I guess I share a bit of camraderie with Nietzsche on that point.

 

[Moogle]

Nothing motivates me, that's the problem. I have a ton of ideas but I'm constantly picking apart what's wrong or unoriginal with each and every one of those ideas. Oh, but I do find the time once every few weeks to put some digital ink on some bits and bytes paper, but it's usually an incomplete piece. When I go back to it and attempt to get writing, I find that I've lost interest in the excellent idea I had in the first place.

As such the real motivation that I can think of is that I like to have people pat me on the back and say "I enjoyed reading that. Thank you." Personal praise perhaps? Knowing that I can be a success and that people can actually know me more as 'that guy' in life.

Only time will tell.

 

[Nik]

Sometimes it is an idea, other times it is a tale that begs or screams to be told.

I've had a couple wake me from a sound sleep, send me grabbing for notebook and biro.

Though I prefer 'Hard Science' SciFi, relaxing the rules a bit can be fun. I can't do 'Fantasy' unless there's a handle on the physics per Clarke's Third Law, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" and the cautionary corollary that 'Magic' may be covert high-tech...

 

[DarkBunni]

3 am.

Yea thats what motivates me. dont beilieve me? stay up. wait for it, but be ready coz story ideas will come at you like a frying an on crack!

3 am motivates me.

And being to lazy to go out and get a real job.